Assuming Vista, Wilcox thinks a dual-boot Mac -- rather than either a machine running some kind of emulation or virtualization software -- would be attractive to business. "It could be an efficient best-of-both-worlds," he said.
For Microsoft, every copy of Windows sold, no matter what the machine's labeling, is, well, another copy sold.
"If you run Windows on a Mac, it's another copy for Microsoft," Wilcox said. "Better yet, it's on a competitor's hardware. It would be like Microsoft taking it to Apple's home field."
Not that Microsoft doesn't do that already to Apple. Its Office for Mac suite, which now accounts for the vast bulk of Redmond's sales to the Mac crowd, got a boost this week when Microsoft promised it would keep developing for the Mac for at least five years.
"Microsoft is on the Mac because it makes money [there]," said Wilcox.