Businesses Get Windows 7 In September

Business customers can get Windows 7 in September, before it hits the shops on 22 October, and will have a 15 percent discount compared with Vista upgrades, the company announced at its partner conference in New Orleans today.

The announcement clarifies some of the confusion that has surrounded the pricing of Windows 7, but a controversial survey released this week suggests it may take more than that to win over business users.

Sixty percent of IT administrators do not intend to deploy Windows 7, according to a survey by tool vendor ScriptLogic. The survey of 1100 administrators found that around 43 percent said they didn’t have time and resources to implement a new operating system, while 39 percent said they didn’t trust that applications would be compatible.

As well as the outright refuseniks, a lot are delaying, according to the survey. Only 5 percent plan to implement it by the end of this year, while 34 percent will wait till the end of 2010. Given that most businesses are still on Windows XP, and have not moved to Windows Vista, that does not show much confidence in the Microsoft products.

However, the survey has been criticised as anti-Microsoft propaganda. TweakTown points out that the 60 percent response actually includes all those with “no plans” to implement Windows 7. The only other options cite specific installation dates – so the 60 percent figure must include all those who are undecided at the moment.

Even this would be a false conclusion, however says Sean Kalinich of TweakTown, because the sample is not random: “ScriptLogic sent out 20,650 questionnaires,” said Kalinich. “Out of this 20,650 they received 1,100 back. This represents about 5.3 percent of the sampling.”

There is a release candidate for Windows 7 available. Meanwhile, a logo for Windows 7 has apparently leaked.