In June, Microsoft is expected to launch Windows OneCare Live, which is the company’s long-anticipated entry into the consumer antivirus space. The company plans to charge $49.95 a year to shield up to three PCs against viruses, spyware and other cyberthreats.
However, although Microsoft’s late entry into the security application market does pose a threat to McAfee’s business, company president Kevin Weiss told ZDNet Australia last week that security requires dedication and specialization.
“Security is hard–we have been doing this for 15 years. We have over 10 patents that are focused right at security. We think we have a pretty significant lead in what we are doing. Security is not something you do part-time,” Weiss said.
Weiss cited an example of how he believes Microsoft’s thinking is fundamentally flawed when it comes to security: “If you are in an airport lounge and they have a PC that lets people do their e-mail remotely, look at how many Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents get downloaded? Microsoft doesn’t allow you to look at those documents without downloading them to the PC. That is, for me, an indication that they don’t think about security all the time,” said Weiss.
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News source: C|Net News
I am glad McAfee will be challenged by Microsoft. McAfee has a very arrogant attitude toward consumer users of their products. For example, they have automatic renewal that can only be removed by contacting a live person in their customer service center (contacting a live person is a real challenge in this company). In addition, they do not allow a person to remove their credit card information from the website without getting a hold of a "live person" (so that you cannot block an automatic renewal?). I hope Microsoft kicks their arrogant butt. Kevin should be more interested in keeping his existing customers happy then he won't need to be worried about Microsoft..