Windows on Mac

Duncan Martell in San Francisco
APPLE has rolled out its first software to give users the option to run Windows on its PCs.By allowing Macs to run Microsoft's Windows, the operating system found on more than 90 per cent of the world's personal computers, Apple could woo people who want Macs, but prefer the Windows operating system.

In June 2005, Apple said it would switch to Intel chips from those made by IBM, citing the performance advantages of Intel processors.

"Ever since we introduced Macs using Intel chips, we've had some customers asking, 'Hey, can you run Windows on these Macs as well?'" Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing for Apple, said in an interview.

Apple, which celebrated its 30th birthday on April 1, will move its entire Mac line to Intel chips by the end of 2007.

Mr Schiller said company research showed two groups of potential Mac customers, what it called "switchers," or those likely to switch from Windows to the Mac OS X operating system.

The first group included those who are open to using a Mac but want to run programs that work only on Windows, such as Microsoft's Outlook calendar program, which isn't supported on Mac OS X, or popular video games.

The second group included those open to using the Mac OS X PC, but wanting a "safety net" if they chose to run Windows.

"Most of them will switch and find they never need to run Windows," Mr Schiller said.
Apple, with about 3 per cent of the worldwide PC market, said the "Boot Camp" software, available immediately as a download, enabled Macs to run either Windows XP or the Mac OS X operating software.

With the patch Mac users will be able to run games and other programs on their Mac OS X without buying a separate Windows-based computer.

"We view this as positive for Apple as it opens a new market to the company and greatly expands the (potential market) for Intel-based Macs," said Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore in a note to clients. "This will be a particular benefit for business applications where users need to run Windows for certain applications."

Apple plans to preview the next major version of its Mac OS X operating system software in August - which will include a Windows option.

Mr Whitmore said with the test release Apple could grab market share during the critical Christmas holiday period since the consumer debut of Microsoft's new Vista software system is delayed until 2007.

JP Morgan analyst Chris Shope estimated that each additional percentage point of PC market share would give Apple another $US2 billion ($2.75 billion) in revenue and more than 30 cents per share in earning.

The final version of Boot Camp will be available as a feature in Mac OS X version 10.5, code-named "Leopard."

Mr Schiller said Apple "absolutely has no plans to sell or support Windows. We're just helping our customers with Boot Camp to install Windows if they want to".

If sufficient numbers of customers convinced Apple to give away software for the easy installation of Windows on Intel-powered Macs, it stood to reason, analysts said, that it would support the use of Vista on future Macs, too.

source:http://australianit.news.com.au