Just hours before Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs took the stage to address the Mac faithful at MacWorld New York, Microsoft announced a Mac "Triple Header" that seems designed, in part, to quell criticism of Microsoft's recent complaints about the Mac OS X adoption rate. The three-pronged OS X lineup includes a Palm OS synchronization conduit for Entourage, Microsoft's Outlook-like OS X email/personal information manager (PIM) client that was actually released earlier this week; an OS X promotion in which users can save $50 to $100 on Office v. X; and a Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) client for OS X that will let Mac users remotely access Windows desktops and servers.
"\[Microsoft's\] Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) is constantly searching for opportunities to meet and exceed our Mac customers' needs," said Tim McDonough, marketing director of Microsoft's MacBU. "We are delighted to \[make these announcements\]."
Microsoft and Apple got in a little flap earlier this week when Kevin Browne, MacBU's director, criticized Apple for not adequately promoting OS X. Microsoft released an OS X-only version of Microsoft Office, dubbed Office v. X, but it has sold less than half as many copies in the same period of time as its predecessor, Office:mac 2001, which runs on older releases of the Mac OS. Jobs reiterated this morning, however, that OS X sales are on track. He noted that OS X now has 2.5 million active users, and the company expects that number to grow to about 5 million by the end of the year.
