Symantec Corp’s president and chief executive Gordon Eubanks believes that the advent of Microsoft Corp’s Windows95 will provide rich pickings for the Cupertino, California company. This is mainly due to the lack of utilities in the forthcoming release from Microsoft. There is a myth that Windows95 has lots more utilities than Windows 3.1 or DOS. It’s just not true – there’s less, said Eubanks. He added that due to the longer filenames in Windows95, previous utility programs will be incompatible with the new operating system, which will create work for the company’s Norton utilities software. Eubanks also suggested that the new operating system will put more strain on computers, requiring more utilities. Preview Windows95 versions of Norton Administrator for Networks, pcAnywhere and Symantec C++ have already shipped. The final Windows95 versions of the products that Symantec sees as its core, Norton Utilities, Anti-Virus and Productivity will ship before the operating system, in the first two weeks of August. These will be followed by Norton DiskLock, Menuing, ACT! and a final version of pcAnywhere, some time after the end of August. Eubanks is as certain as anyone can be about the deadline, it’s on track for August 24, but we’ll see, he said drily. He pre dicted strong profits for this year, and revenues in excess of $350m, and added that he could not see the company going through the year without acquisitions. Eubanks said that a key objective of the company was to get products to market simultaneously around the world, by which he meant the US, Europe and Japan, and to expand the programme of testing in its markets outside the US.
