Microsoft Hopes Nagging Employees Boost Win7 Sales

While Windows 7 is doing well among home users, adoption by businesses remains comparably slow. But one research company has an interesting idea for how that might change: it thinks workers used to the system on their home PCs might pressure employers to upgrade.

While around one in five XP and Vista users overall switched to Windows 7 in its first year (ending October 22), only one in ten businesses are currently running the system. About 75 per cent still use XP.

When Windows 7 first debuted, there was some debate about how rapidly businesses would adopt it. On the one hand, many companies stuck with XP and skipped Vista altogether; these firms were more than ready for an updated operating system (OS).

On the other hand, by no means did Windows 7 launch at the right time. A tough economy meant many companies considered a new OS an expense they could do without, particularly if they were still using XP-era PCs that couldn't handle Windows 7.

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Business Likes Windows 7... In Principle

According to Forrester Research, that latter point may be the most important factor: it found that 40 per cent of the businesses it surveyed were waiting until they bought new hardware before switching to Windows 7. Of course, some companies will have scheduled replacement programs for hardware anyway, while others may find themselves in a stronger financial position given time.

The good news for Microsoft is that the research showed most companies were happy in principle with what they knew about Windows 7 and its business benefits, and that in many cases it's only the financial issue holding them back. This shouldn't be a major surprise, as most businesses say it takes a year to test a new operating system fully, but at least Microsoft knows it's not getting a Vista-like verdict this time. (Source: zdnet.com)

Individual Upgrades A Possibility

The study also found that fully 47 per cent of businesses said they would be prepared to add Windows 7 to work machines on a case-by-case basis if a staff member requested an upgrade. (Source: cio.com)

According to Forrester, that won't simply be a case of some workers wanting to have the latest toy. Instead, researchers believe workers who have Windows 7 at home will find it easier to use the same system at work.