This is a the news that's has the word 'shocker' written all over it. Apple has announced official support for running Windows XP on Intel-based Macs, with a software called Boot Camp. Boot Camp allows users with Microsoft Windows XP installation discs to install and dual-boot Windows XP on Intel based Mac's including the Macbook Pro.

From the Apple site - "Boot Camp simplifies Windows installation on an Intel-based Mac by providing a simple graphical step-by-step assistant application to dynamically create a second partition on the hard drive for Windows, to burn a CD with all the necessary Windows drivers, and to install Windows from a Windows XP installation CD. After installation is complete, users can choose to run either Mac OS X or Windows when they restart their computer."

Boot Camp is available as an immediately as a download from http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp and is currently a preview/beta. The final version of Boot Camp will be available as a feature in the upcoming version of Mac OS X version 10.5, "Leopard".

Wow... this is a news which is also going to shock everyone else in the hardware business too.