According to an article on Computerworld.com, Microsoft veteran software development chief James Allchin commented in a January 2004 e-mail to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and company co-founder Bill Gates that the software firm had "lost sight" of customer needs and claimed that he would buy a Mac if he wasn't working for Microsoft.

"In my view, we lost our way," claimed James Allchin co-president of Microsoft's platform and services division, wrote in an e-mail dated Jan. 7, 2004.

The e-mail was presented along with evidence last week in the Iowa antitrust trial, Comes v. Microsoft Corp where Microsoft is defending itself against allegations that the firm used its monopoly position to overcharge Iowa residents for its software. The case is one of the two holdover cases brought against Microsoft by the U.S. government and multiple states from the late 1990's asserting that Microsoft abused its position in the market.

"I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products," said Allchin in one of the cited e-mails.

Allchin, a veteran Windows development manager since the mid-1990's, is still with the company but plans to retire at the end of this year after the upcoming Windows Vista operating system ships out the door. Elements of the legal transcripts and e-mails were obtained and posted by Groklaw.net, an open-source legal web site.

Like much of the evidence brought against Microsoft in past antitrust litigation, transcripts from the e-mail messages of Allchin and other executives have helped construct the case.

No immediate reply to Allchin's comments were available from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Inc., Microsoft's public relations firm.