"The challenge is to get people to accept they are the right players as it takes a while to get trust and product recognition in the market."

Freer said the Symantec business has had growth in online sales, but a lesser rate of growth in the retail market, adding online is the future product delivery channel but not everyone wants to use it, especially those used to over-the-counter purchases.

Monica Kelly, McAfee director of consumer business, Asia Pacific, said Microsoft has been a significant partner of McAfee for a number of years and in the online channel, McAfee does not see any indication of Microsoft displacing McAfee's presence or eclipsing online sales.

"I believe at retail we will see strong competition and we are seeing the competition at retail present itself already in terms of the conversations we are having with major retailers in Australia," Kelly said.

"In ANZ the release is in a different form to the US as Microsoft showed up in the retail market with a OneCare budget and in Australia with a OneCare and Vista release budget ... but the mechanics turned out the same, with Microsoft sitting on the shelf it did not wipe Symantec and McAfee out.