Microsoft's Good and Bad News

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on May 13

While Apple is clearly slowly eating into Microsoft’s dominance of the corporate desktop Microsoft isn’t smarting too much for many reasons. One reason is that Microsoft is the biggest developer of Mac software outside of Apple itself, and as it happens, Microsoft’s Mac business is booming. Word came today from Redmond’s Mac Business Unit today is that Office for Mac is selling faster than any previous version of Office for the Mac in the in the last 19 years. Of course Microsoft won’t say exactly how many units it has sold. As a percentage of revenue it’s not large enough that Microsoft would be required to break it out of its usual results, though I for one certainly wish it would. Also noted is that today is the day that Office for Mac’s first service pack, SP1, is being released.

Meanwhile, colleague Aaron Ricadela has a terrific story today on how many large corporations are skipping Windows Vista entirely. His lead example is General Motors whose top technology executive, Fred Killeen, says the company is considering waiting for Windows 7. Hey Fred? Ever tried a Mac?

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