MSN Messenger 2.1 for Mac Makes Web Debut

CNET

March 19, 2002

Microsoft late Monday quietly posted MSN Messenger 2.1, an update to its instant messaging product for the Macintosh.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company planned to update its Mactopia Web site Tuesday to reflect the upgrade, a spokesman said. Mac users downloading what they thought was version 2.0 on Monday would have retrieved the new version instead.

The free update brings to the larger Mac community a product available to paying customers since November. While instant messaging software is typically offered at no cost by AOL Time Warner, Yahoo and other companies, Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger 2.1 as part of a paid product: Office v. X for the Mac.

Apple executives have described Office v. X as the "poster child" for Mac OS X, the company’s next-generation Macintosh operating system, which is built around a Unix core. Apple unveiled Mac OS X a year ago this month but initially struggled in getting software developers to quickly adapt their applications from Mac OS 9.2 to the new operating system.

In an interview last month, Kevin Browne, general manager of Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU), defended the decision to hold back version 2.1 from the larger Mac community. He described that version and the earlier one as "virtually identical," adding that the company would "make a decision soon" about releasing the version with Office or as an update to the product.

"I don’t know why they waited so long or say they waited so long," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver. "It’s development priorities. They’re committed to making Windows the best platform, and frankly, Mac is a competing platform."

Paying customers also got preferential treatment with regard to Windows Media Player for Mac OS X. The product also shipped with Office v. X, but Microsoft waited nearly two months before posting the media playback and streaming software on the Web.

The new version’s support for Mac OS X potentially unlocked streaming content to thousands of Web sites that do not use Apple’s QuickTime player. RealNetworks does not yet offer a Mac OS X version of either RealPlayer or RealOne products. A spokeswoman would give no firmer delivery commitment than "sometime later this year."

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