Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) on Monday previewed the next version of its Mac OS X (news - web sites) operating system, which it said would include powerful search features that would put it far ahead of the next major update to Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) market-leading Windows software. Apple's search technology, which it calls Spotlight, lets Mac users find any file, document or information created by any application on a Macintosh (news - web sites) by entering the query in a search at the upper right hand corner of the desktop.
Simplifying the search process on a PC's hard drive has emerged as one of the major goals of both Tiger and Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which is due out in 2006.
"What they've (Apple) done with search is a key element of Longhorn," said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, adding that Apple's next version of OS X, code-named Tiger, will be available to consumers at least a year or more before Longhorn.
