Study predicts bear market for Windows 7

A new report is predicting a slow market for enterprise adoption of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 release.

A recent survey of 1,100 IT professionals found that 83 per cent of IT departments are not planning on adopting the new Windows operating system in the next year. The study was carried out by research firm Dimensional Research with the backing of IT management vendor KACE.

According to the researchers, economic hardships and lingering doubts from Windows Vista were the main causes for apprehension.

Around 83 per cent of those surveyed said that their companies would be skipping Vista altogether and moving from Windows XP straight to Windows 7. Of the 17 per cent of respondents who did plan on upgrading to Windows 7 in the next year, more than half said that a desire to avoid Vista was the main reason for the move.

Additionally, 50 per cent of the respondents said that their companies had considered switching to Linux or MacOS systems rather than a new version of Windows.

"Negative public perception of Vista seems to have helped build this layer of distrust with Windows 7," said Dimensional Research senior analyst Diane Hagglund.

"The research shows that, despite the early enthusiasm for Windows 7, organisations are still wary about adoption, demonstrating what could be described as an overly cautious approach."

Most companies do, however, see themselves adopting Windows 7 in the long run. Though just 17 per cent plan on updating in the next 12 months, 42 per cent believe that they will be running Windows 7 within 12 to 24 months, and an additional 24 per cent plan on updating within the next 24 to 36 months.

The news comes as Microsoft has officially ended the support period for Windows XP, which will turn eight years old this year.

The ageing operating system does not seem to be worrying too many admins, however. Some 72 per cent of those surveyed were more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than maintaining an outdated Windows XP system.