The proliferation of free anti virus solutions has clearly started to worry annoy Symantec which recently shoved an executive mouthpiece on record to denounce the efficacy of such products.

Symantec’s Product Manager for Asia-Pacific Consumer Products and Solutions (zzz) David Hall said that free solutions cannot keep up with retail offerings.

“If you are only relying on free antivirus to offer you protection in this modern age, you are not getting the protection you need to be able to stay clean and have a reasonable chance of avoiding identity theft,” he said.

The Symantec exec also ragged on Microsoft’s Morro solution that just entered beta.

“Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from retail shelves,” he said. “Consumers don’t need less protection, they need more.”

Meanwhile, an antivirus efficacy report (PDF) conducted by AV-Comparatives in December of last year illustrates several of those pesky free solutions offering better protection than Symantec’s own.

Free solutions from AVIRA and G DATA both offered superior detection rates to Symantec's goods.

While 2008’s rising profits displayed all the trappings of a fiscally successful year for the Cupertino security firm, falling market share, the slow erosion of clientele and damning studies cast a shadow of doubt on the honesty of their apparent consumer advocacy.

In a low-key posting on the Apple support website, the Cupertino vendor has suggested that users of Macintosh computers employ a panel of AV solutions.

Security analyst AV Comparatives has released their 2008 performance analysis for leading anti-virus solutions. Sixteen different products from wildly different ends of the price scale were pitted head-to-head in a battle to prove which application has the greatest impact on system performance.

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In a surprising move, Microsoft has decided to offer a free anti-virus solution in lieu of its OneCare service to be eliminated in 2009.

One has to wonder exactly what spurred Microsoft to move in this direction. We suspect that Microsoft may be looking to gain a valuable piece of good will with the free AV crowd.