Thus far, sales of Windows 7 have been "fantastic," and now there's also evidence it's boosting hardware sales -- which will undoubtedly increase this Black Friday with super holiday deals to be had. Manufacturers and retailers on both sides of the Atlantic are already crediting Windows 7 with helping move more computers this pre-holiday season.

Manufacturer Acer says its recent sales are up 25 per cent on the same time last year -- all thanks to Microsoft's new operating system (OS). The firm, which is the second largest PC manufacturer in the world, says it predicted such an effect as soon as it saw the initial plans for Windows 7 and hasn't been disappointed in the final product. (Source: reuters.com)

There are a couple of notes of caution to that news, however. The firm was clear that the sales boost isn't any higher than expected, and sales haven't risen in comparison to this summer when the Windows 7 hadn't yet been released.

Win7 to Bolster Holiday Sales in UK

Meanwhile, Dixons Store Group, one of the major electrical retailers in the United Kingdom, credited Windows 7 with helping improve sales thus far. Although revenue was down in the last quarter, the group believes that things could have been much worse without the new OS.

It says that, as expected, many customers delayed buying new machines until Windows 7 was available. That said, it's not a particularly good sign for the success of schemes offering a free upgrade to people who bought a Vista machine over the summer. Since the system's release, however, sales have apparently risen notably, and the past month has seen better figures than the same period in 2008. (Source: investegate.co.uk)

More Evidence Of Microsoft Stronghold

Web use statistics in New Zealand seem to bear out the general trend of Windows 7 gaining a noticeable share in its first few weeks.

However, that share is only around three per cent (worldwide figures have had it as high as five per cent), and it's well below the figures for the Mac (unlike worldwide figures which show it beating Apple's systems). That disparity is likely due to New Zealand being a more affluent nation than many developing markets, which makes higher-priced Macs more likely to get sales.

There's also some good news from Microsoft's ad department: the firm had been scheduled to sponsor a special edition of Family Guy which would feature Windows 7, but pulled the deal over concerns about the show's content. However, in this week's episode the system was mentioned as part of a spelling bee scene. In what's almost certainly a sign that some sort of placement deal was struck, the scene was immediately followed by a Microsoft commercial.