http://www.forbes.com/home/technolog...0405apple.html
Burlingame, Calif. -
Apple Computer's iPod dominates the market for MP3 players. But its much-praised computers are barely also-rans in the PC world. Today Steve Jobs took a small step toward trying to change that by lettings users run Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system on their machines.
It's the latest in a series of steps Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) has made with an eye on beefing up its 2.3% share of the world's PC market. Last year, the company rolled out a series of low-end "mini" computers to try to compete with cheap machines that run Windows; this year, the company began using microprocessors from Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ), the same chips that power a majority of the world's computers running Windows.
Jobs' 30-year-old company has evolved over the years from a PC manufacturer into a company with broad interests in digital entertainment, but its computer business is still important. If the company's Macintosh line can eke out a 1% market share gain, it could boost earnings 15%, estimates Piper Jaffray (nyse: PJC - news - people ) analyst Gene Munster. Investors took the company's move seriously, pushing shares 6% to $64.89 in midday trading.
The company's shares had drifted this year amid uncertainty about how much longer Apple could sustain its momentum, and so far this year, Jobs has yet to wow enthusiasts and investors with new products.
Apple still has some major rollouts coming in the months ahead. The most significant will be an upgraded operating system, known as Leopard, which may come later this year or early in 2007. Apple's operating system has been a hit with users for its intuitive interface, slick features, relative safety and frequent easy upgrades.
Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) has repeatedly delayed its own operating system upgrade, pushing back its release date once again just last week, this time into 2007, thus offering Apple another opportunity to entice users to buy its products.
The software patch Apple unveiled Wednesday—which will become a standard feature in Leopard—will act as another way to draw long-time Windows users to try Apple systems. They'll have the comfort of knowing their applications will be completely compatible on Apple hardware.
Apple isn't making a full-blown capitulation here. The company is still pushing its own operating system, not Microsoft's. And Apple doesn't intend to support or sell Windows software. If Jobs really wanted Mac owners to use the Windows operating system, he'd offer them a choice. Instead, Apple has posted this disclaimer on its site: "Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it'll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes."
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now only if they do it the other way around.
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