Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest operating system, is slowly but surely increasing its footprint on the Mac. Thanks to the native Boot Camp technology from Apple as well as the various virtualization solutions designed to run on top of the Mac OS X operating system, Windows can run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. The fact of the matter is that the switch to Intel processors has opened a new "window" for the Cupertino-based company, offering its users the chance to run both Windows and Mac OS X on the same platform.

And according to the market analysis firm NPD, Mac users have jumped at the chance of running Windows Vista on their machines. No less than 10% of all copies of Windows Vista Business and Ultimate editions that have been sold via the retail channel in the U.S. have gone to Mac users, NPD estimates. At the end of the first six months on the market, Windows Vista accounted for over 60 million licenses shipped worldwide. Microsoft failed to disclose the percentages of Vista sales on specific markets worldwide, but even so, 10% out of all the copies delivered in the U.S. indicates a consistent volume.

Chris Swenson, NPD's director of software industry analysis, as cited by Microsoft-Watch, commented that the estimated 10% of all Vista Business and Ultimate SKUs going to the Mac is in no way a conservative result. The analysis has taken into consideration both virtualization solutions that enable users to run the 32-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista in tandem with Mac OS X, as well as Boot Camp, Apple's technology designed to permit users to switch between the two operating systems installed in parallel.

For Apple, Mac users running Windows Vista via Boot Camp automatically imply a sold copy of its upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Although for now, Boot Camp is available as a standalone download in beta stage, the product is scheduled to expire at the end of December, or the moment Leopard drops. Initially, Apple envisioned Boot Camp as an integer part of Leopard, and not a software to be backported to Tiger. Leopard is planned for release by the end of October 2007.