Windows 7 launch - No better time to be involved

Jens Butler, Principal Analyst, Ovum

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: According to the Oct 22nd launch marketing blitz, there’s never been a better time to be a PC. It may also never be a better time to be a systems integrator, given that this launch fits into the timing of PC upgrade cycles, and the ageing and retirement of Windows XP with the ending of official Microsoft support in April, 2009.

Ovum expects to see significant interest in adoption in 2010 and which will in turn have a positive impact across the whole PC ecosystem (hardware suppliers, applications developers, systems integrators and channel providers, for example).

From a buyer perspective, Ovum expects the Windows 7 launch as an opportunity to undertake some serious housekeeping, especially for organizations that have stuck with XP.

One has to give Microsoft credit, this version of the Windows platform has had far more engagement with stakeholders than previous versions, with users (consumer and enterprise) and partners having substantial input, with specific demands for security, reliability and speed being the development cornerstones. Microsoft has also driven through its shortest beta testing cycle ever – cynically, one could say it needed to be.

Overall, the messaging of simplicity, choice and value seems to resonate, and it has the potential for Microsoft to rebuild some of the trust lost through Vista. Even with that legacy, expect enterprise uptake and migration programmes to start to appear during the first two quarters of 2010, with greater acceleration once budgets become released on the back of the greenshoots of recovery and when XP support is phased out by Microsoft’s channel partners.