• Business Week, Thursday, October 15, 2009 10:42 AM

Apple sees the Windows 7 launch as its best chance in years to win over longtime PC users, Peter Burrows reports, and it probably will bombard buyers with advertising in the coming weeks that pokes fun at users trying to upgrade from XP while also making the point that Macs are less susceptible to viruses and are best suited to iPods and iPhones.

"We've been through these transitions before, and no matter how you look at it, it's still Windows," says Philip W. Schiller, Apple's svp for marketing. "When all is said and done, the Mac picks up share a bit at a time."

Parri Munsell, Microsoft's director for consumer product management, counters that the "vast majority" of consumers who upgrade to Windows 7 will also buy new hardware, and PCs are generally a lot cheaper than Macs. Others also doubt that Mac will make huge inroads. "I just don't think you're going to have a huge influx of people who have perfectly good XP machines deciding they need to buy an all-new Mac," says PC Data analyst Stephen Baker.

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