According to this article in Infoworld, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it had acquired Connectix’s Virtual PC products, including Virtual PC for Mac. This all sounds well and good, until one reads the last two paragraphs:

The goal for the [Microsoft Mac Business Unit] is to have seamless compatibility between Windows and Mac OS X, according to McDonough [director of Marketing and Business Development].

“We think this is a great thing for the future of Virtual PC,” said McDonough. There is probably nobody better than the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft to bring Windows onto the Mac."

Well, it may be a great thing for the future of Virtual PC, but what does it mean for the future of the Macintosh? Sure, it’s great that Windows programs may be optimized to run even better on future versions of Virtual PC on the Mac, but what about concentrating the same energy into making great Mac OS X versions of Windows software?

I have never understood why Microsoft feels at all threatened by the Mac platform, seeing as the user base represents only about 5% of the total market share of PC users. Nevertheless, someone in Redmond feels that there’s enough money being left on the table to justify lame, hamfisted attempts to get any stray sheep to jump back over the fence into the fold of Windows.