Microsoft is likely to hire even more software specialists at its European headquarters in Sandyford as a result of its new alliance with Apple, it emerged last night. The graduates will have to work around the clock to produce Macintosh versions of two upcoming Microsoft software programmes.
The chief executive of Microsoft in Ireland, Ms Ann Riordan, confirmed last night that the European "localisation" - the translation and adaptation of the programmes for more than a dozen countries - for both Office 98 and Internet Explorer 4 would be done in Dublin.
As part of the deal with Apple, Macintosh versions of these programmes will now also have to be produced at speed. Ms Riordan said last night that while she could not yet say if or when new software graduates would be needed for the project, it would all be done by the Irish operation. Microsoft already employs 900 workers in Ireland.
"The localisation will be done in Ireland," she told The Irish Times. "The local content for both Office 98 and Explorer is very high, so we are talking about substantial input."
Meanwhile, Apple's 1,500 staffers in Cork, currently on their annual two-week holiday, find their position strengthened and their jobs safeguarded by the deal. The company has already designated the Cork plant a "centre of excellence", and it is now the sole facility within Apple manufacturing both printed circuit boards and finished computers.
A spokesman for the company said he was delighted with the agreement, and that Apple now saw itself as having a very bright future.
Analysts have hailed the agreement as one of the best moves the loss-making Apple has made in years, an opinion that was born out by the jump in the company's share price that followed the news.
In the US, anti-monopoly regulators have been investigating the larger company since 1989, and Apple has long accused Microsoft's Windows programme as having the "look and feel" of its own Macintosh system.
The Financial Times adds: The deal, also included the settlement of a long-festering patent dispute between the companies.
Microsoft also committed itself to developing applications software for future Apple personal computers, but that commitment yesterday appeared narrower than observers had first assumed.
In particular, Microsoft's endorsement of the Apple Macintosh does not extend to Rhapsody, a new PC operating system under development at Apple.
Microsoft has agreed to continue to develop and ship software to run on Apple's Macintosh PCs for the next five years. However, Microsoft has not agreed to develop software to run on rhapsody, upon which Apple is pinning hopes for its future growth.
Apart from Mac loyalists, who spontaneously booed and hooted when the head of Microsoft, Bill Gates, appeared live by video conference at the announcement, there was little trace of such bitterness this week.
"We are confident that this is the beginning of a much closer relationship between the two companies," said Apple's special adviser Mr Steve Jobs.
