Windows-based versions of desk top publishing software, QuarkXPress are set to overtake the traditional Macintosh-based versions next year. Quark Inc chief executive Fred Ebrahimi says at the moment Macintosh QuarkXPress versions sell six copies to every four copies of the Windows version. But he predicts this figure to reverse itself the over next year as increasing numbers of Quark users swap from Mac machines to personal computers. In the past few months sales of the Windows version have increased 160% on a year-on-year basis in the US and Europe, and Ebrahimi expects this figure to increase over the next two to three years. On a global basis this is likely to be boosted by this week’s release of QuarkXPress 4.0 in Japan, the first time a Japanese version of the DTP software has been developed to run on the Mac and Windows. Ebrahimi told Nikkei AsiaBizTech that Quark will increasingly focus its efforts and products towards Windows and away from the Mac in the coming years. The official line from Mac maker Apple Computer Inc is that this is not a problem for the company, which has just started to turn its fortunes around after a disastrous few years. Apple spokesperson Russell Brady told Computergram: We are the dominant platform within the publishing space and we are poised to grow in this area.
