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Microsoft faults Apple marketing, questions future commitment

A Wall Street Journal article (paid subscription required) discusses the displeasure that some major developers are voicing over the sales of Mac OS X software and Apple’s promotion of the operating system. In particular, Microsoft blames Apple’s marketing for lackluster sales of Office v.X: 300,000 copies to date, behind the pace of 750,000 it wanted for its first year, come November. While Microsoft remains committed to delivering another version of Office in 2003, “it’s harder to predict [past that]. If things don’t dramatically turn around, we’ll be evaluating this business with Apple,” Kevin Browne, head of Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit, told the publication. Corel has likewise expressed concern: after delivering seven Mac OS X titles, the company has found that most of its users continue to work with Mac OS 9. Apple’s Phil Schiller, senior vice president of world-wide product marketing, calls such claims “very misplaced,” saying that 2.5 million users are using Mac OS X and that the company expects 5 million users by the end of year, “on top of our targets.” Not all developers share this sentiment, however; Adobe saw Mac sales rise from 27 percent of its business to 31 percent last quarter, a move that it attributes largely to the release of Mac OS X titles.

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