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Survey Shows Firms Will Wait for Windows 7

By , Money Morning •

By Bob Blandeburgo
Associate Editor
Money Morning

Six in ten companies have no plans to upgrade to Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) upcoming Windows 7 operating system (OS), which will be available to businesses starting on September 1, according to CNET.

ScriptLogic Corp., a company that helps companies in manage their Windows-based networks, polled 1,100 firms on their plans regarding Windows 7. Almost 60% responded they “have no plans to deploy Windows 7” at this time. Thirty-four percent of the respondents said they will deploy the OS by the end of 2010, 5.4% said they would deploy it by the end of this year, and 1.4% said they already have it deployed (presumably in release candidate form).

But do Scriptlogic’s numbers accurately represent the correct numbers of business that will upgrade to Windows 7 on the whole? One tech website says no.

“Looking at the responses, if you are undecided you get lumped into the ‘We have no Plans’ category and are part of an inaccurate data sampling,” tech site TweakTown said. “A portion of the 59% may change their minds in the next month, we cannot know. As such this survey gives a misleading impression that a majority do not want to move to the new OS.”

ScriptLogic’s survey is consistent with data from International Data Corp. (NYSE: IDC) that indicates that most businesses will be slow to adopt Windows 7. ScriptLogic’s survey does not address Windows 7 deployment beyond next year. Money Morning reported last week that Microsoft’s new OS will indeed get off to a slow start but ultimately overtake the dominant OS in businesses today, Windows XP by 2012.

Not surprisingly, the biggest barrier for corporations upgrading to Windows 7 early in its life will be “time and resources” as companies struggle to do more with less amid rising unemployment.

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