

The Parallels software has been in testing since April, and more than 100,000 people have tried it out, according to the company. "An increase of this magnitude would almost triple Apple's share in the home market and increase it 75 percent worldwide," Wolf wrote. He cited a survey by his firm, which found that in the U.S., some 8 percent of home PC owners would switch to a Mac if it could run Windows. "The trigger for our upgrade is the prospect that a significant number of Windows users will switch to a Mac once it's able to run Windows applications," Wolf wrote in a report. Needham analyst Charlie Wolf upgraded Apple's stock on Tuesday, saying that the combination of Boot Camp and programs like Parallels could help the Cupertino, Calif.-based company gain market share. "Things move very, very fast."īeing able to run Windows programs is seen as a potentially significant catalyst for Mac sales.

"The difference in performance between Parallels and Boot Camp is negligible," said Parallels marketing manager Ben Rudolph. In fact, Parallels says Windows programs can run nearly as fast through its virtualization as running natively on a Windows PC. As a result, the speed of Parallels is far better than past efforts at bringing together the two operating systems, the software start-up said. That's because Macs and PCs now use the same Intel-based chips.

Unlike past software that allowed Windows programs to run on a Mac, Parallels Desktop does not need to emulate the hardware that's inside a PC. The Windows programs open in a separate window within the Mac OS.

However, Boot Camp permits people to run only one operating system at a time, meaning either Windows or the Mac OS can be in use, but not both at once.Īround the same time, Parallels started testing for its Parallels Desktop program, which uses virtualization technology to have Windows programs operate alongside Mac applications. Parallels, a start-up whose software enables Macs to run Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS at the same time, says it is ready with a final version of its product.Īpple Computer made headlines back in April when it said it would offer its own software- Boot Camp-for loading Windows onto Macs.
