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X and XP carry on the Apple-Microsoft battle

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CIOL Bureau
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Peter Henderson

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SAN FRANCISCO: Graphic artist Lisa Hoffman has not seen Windows XP, Microsoft

Corp.'s latest and greatest operating system debuting on Thursday, but she is

pretty sure she doesn't want it. Hoffman has a Mac.

The 35-year-old bought her first machine from Apple Computer Inc. in 1985.

"On a personal level, it is almost like loving the underdog. Microsoft

always seems like the Big Brother thing that is always scaring everybody,"

she said.

Refreshed after four years with founder Steve Jobs back at the helm, Apple

has trumped Microsoft, in many analysts' view, by releasing its own OS X, a

revamped, multimedia operating system about six months ago, beating XP.

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But the company that has introduced many of the major improvements in

personal computers, from graphical interface and mouse to the track pad and the

DVD-write drive, has remained a cult hit rather than a crossover success.

"Apple has once again not achieved escape velocity," said David

Coursey, a long-time computer industry commentator and sometime critic of

Microsoft practices. Apple's products are better, but not better enough to tip

the scales for most people buying a computer, he said.

"Some people think Microsoft targeted Apple" with XP, he said.

"I don't think Microsoft cares that much." Apple divided the world

into conformists and Mac users in 1984 when it introduced the Macintosh in a

Superbowl commercial of a woman hurling a hammer at a Big Brother talking head.

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Today Apple's "think different" mantra carries fewer political

connotations and focuses more simply on making technology accessible than

putting down Microsoft, which has taken a major stake in Apple.

Apple is opening company retail stores to win some Windows converts and

spread its message of integration. Many of products are not produced by Apple.

"We believe the Mac can become the center of your digital

lifestyle," Jobs said this week when he unveiled a snazzy portable music

player which takes the firm back outside its computer stronghold for the first

time since its ill-fated Newton handheld debuted in 1993.

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"As always they are well ahead of the curve," said Gartner analyst

Martin Reynolds. OS X, Apple's new operating system, is easier to use than XP,

he added. But not enough to increase Apple's share of the computer market, about

4 percent in the United States and less than three percent world wide, he

argued.

"I think they are doing just fine," he said. "They own a niche

market. they are profitable."

Musician Dan Doerner said he would soon add a borrowed personal computer

running Windows to his collection of two Macs. A huge fan of Apple's OS X, he

wants to be able to try out Microsoft. "I try to be open-minded," he

said.

(C) Reuters Limited.

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