“Microsoft claims it is still on track to deliver the Longhorn next generation of the Windows operating system during the second quarter of 2006 despite knock-on delays from XP Service Pack 2, and has dismissed Apple’s claims of the iPod ‘halo effect’ denting the PC market,” Jo Best writes for Silicon.com. Longhorn’s “development process was already delayed when security developers were pulled off working on Longhorn to contribute to XP SP2. ‘It’s the internal culture – anything to do with security, we get it out the door as soon as possible. The more pain the customer feels, the worse it is for us,’ Crossley told silicon.com.”
Best reports, “With Apple’s own next gen OS, Tiger, widely expected to debut this month – almost a year before Longhorn’s scheduled release – Apple execs have hinted they expect to be copycatted by Redmond rival. Crossley said she expected technological crossovers but denied they would be deliberate. ‘We do a load of research into what people want and funnily enough so does Apple – it’s not hard to work it out… Will I be surprised if there are similarities? No.’ And despite reports to the contrary, Crossley said Redmond has seen no halo effect from iPod users shunning PCs in favour of Macs. ‘We haven’t seen it yet,’ she said. ‘We’re not happy about losing any market share,’ Crossley said. ‘We worry less about ‘losing share’ and more about what else we can get into… we want to do it all.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s hardly newsworthy that Microsoft strives to be a Jack of all trades and ends up being a master of none, but to hear that they haven’t seen iPod users shunning PCs in favor of Macs “yet” implies that they do expect it in the future even while others are seeing the effect happening already.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Morgan Stanley: Apple’s ‘iPod Halo Effect’ is ‘roughly double what the market expects’ – March 18, 2005
‘iPod Halo Effect’ – sales of the iPod are spurring orders of other Apple products – February 24, 2005
Report: Best Buy to sell Mac mini, could accelerate ‘iPod Halo Effect’ – January 28, 2005
Apple execs now see ‘iPod Halo Effect’ clearly paying off with higher Macintosh sales – January 13, 2005
Holy Halo Effect! Analyst predicts 100 million iPod sales by 2008 – Windows to Mac switchers coming? – November 24, 2004
Analyst: iPod ‘should spur sales of iMac, this is just the beginning of a ramp for Apple’ – November 23, 2004
Survey: 13% of iPod owners have switched, plan to switch to Mac from Windows within 12 months – November 22, 2004