NEWS
With software spending down 16.5 per cent year-on-year, Windows 7's launch tomorrow will see it enter the market amid one of the toughest squeezes on IT budgets for some time.
The outlook from analysts, however, is a positive one.
According to James Governor, principal analyst at RedMonk, the adoption of Windows 7 will put that of Windows Vista in the shade.
"Vista was stillborn and its take-up was a trickle, in comparison I expect that the take-up of Windows 7 will be a river," he told silicon.com.
Governor believes Microsoft's sales will benefit from a thaw in corporate spending on IT, although he is less optimistic about its take-up within government.
"As the budgets free up this I think that Windows 7 will be a success in the private sector. With the state of the finances in the public sector however I do not think there will be a big take-up at all."
The signs are that the shift to Windows 7 will begin in earnest next year, with Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom predicting large deployments by business will begin in March 2010 and a survey by analyst house Forrester finding that it will be the most commonly used OS in business by the end of 2010.
But for some CIOs on older OSes, the cost impetus to adopt Windows 7 is already stacking up, thanks to the aging nature of Windows XP.
The poor sales of Windows Vista means that today the seven-year-old Windows XP is still the desktop OS of choice for businesses worldwide. However, despite the recession, moving from XP to Windows 7 could prove a cost-cutting exercise for businesses, according to Longbottom.
Microsoft's Windows 7 desktop
(Photo credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET News)
"In the long term, the costs of sticking with XP outweigh those of moving to Windows 7 - even in the downturn companies will be looking to upgrade.
"There are organisations sitting on Windows XP who see that Microsoft removed its prime level support for the OS this year and that Windows 7 is quicker and offers a better security model.
"Windows 7 has already outsold Vista in the consumer market and you will increasingly have users who have Windows 7 at home ringing tech support asking how they can do the same thing on XP."
But while the large number of businesses still using XP is expected to drive sales of Windows 7, the lack of an easy upgrade path could serve as a deterrent for some enterprises.
Quocirca's Longbottom said: "Microsoft advise to do a clean install to go from Windows XP to Windows 7.
"If you are in a medium-sized organisation you may not have the capability to do the clean install, put back all of the applications and find out where all the data is for every machine."
For those looking to make the switch from XP to Windows 7, Microsoft has built in a safety net for some applications. Windows 7 will have an XP Mode allowing XP programs to run in Redmond's upcoming operating system, helping the new OS avoid the difficulty Vista had in running existing corporate applications.
Longbottom said this is a huge advantage in the enterprise market: "There is a lot of software out there in the business market that is five to 15 years old that needs to be able to run on Windows 7."
For CIOs looking to build a case for the adoption of Windows 7 in their business, there are several new features that could prove useful to businesses, including advanced security tools, such as BitLocker To Go, and web technologies, such as an inbuilt ability to read and produce RSS feeds.
However, the main way Microsoft has made Windows 7 more attractive to business is...
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Melissa Digitalis
This upgrade is really exciting, finally we can move away from Vista! Be careful when you do make the upgrade and make sure you have a Migration Kit for Windows 7 in place so that you don’t lose your data!
2. anonymous
Although W7 is exciting, and after 3 years 'Vista done right', it is laughable to think corporates are gaggin to move to it.
XP, with Office 2003/2007 will do just fine for years to come.
Hell I still have customers still squeezing value out of Windows NT/2000, with no plans to change !!!
3. anonymous
Absolutely! I will not jump to change that quickly. My oldest PC is from 1995 with Win 2000 and does exactly what it has to do! Bought an XP PC last year which functions perfectly well. Conclusion: I've past Vista and will do so with W7. Can always check it out at my friends :-))
My wife is thinking of getting a Mac for herself. Sorry Microsoft you will have to wait a little for my money!
4. Matt H
I upgraded my desktop PC and my wifes Laptop to Windows 7 Home Premium yesterday. What a pleasure it was! I performed a clean install from Vista (to make sure it was completely eradicated!) and am happy to report that I had zero problems. I didn't bother with the Easy Transfer, preferring to backup and restore data manually.
First impressions: Windows 7 is what Vista should have been! It works. It's fast, looks good and is easy to use. I lament the day I had Vista!
I only hope Windows 7 doesn't turn into the bloat-ware that Vista was after the myriad of updates I'm sure are to follow...
5. anonymous
Windows 7 is a waste of money.
Xp does everything 7 does!
Just because MS investors are unhappy MS is going to stop XP support asnd force customer to move to 7.
This all about profit and not the customer!
6. Ant Evans
What drives adoption in the corporate environment is the hardware upgrade cycle, if there is one; the upgrade path (there isn't one here); security; and compatibility. XP causes us no pain (except in as much as we have to look at it all day) and it will be in support until 2014. Switching to anything else causes pain in every one of those areas. We have hundreds of apps - the testing effort alone would cost us millions. Win 7 looks nice. We'll switch when we have to.