Early Windows 7 users like the new operating system, but many Windows XP users still like their nine-year-old OS. That’s the word from two new reports by Forrester Research, which said that 86 percent of the first users of Microsoft’s newest operating system are satisfied.
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The Forrester reports, created from an online survey of 4,559 U.S. consumers, also found that about 43 percent of Windows XP users don’t have a reason to upgrade to 7. The biggest competitor to Windows 7 isn’t the Mac, said the report. It’s Windows XP.
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‘Thinner Client’ Helped Upgrading
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Forrester noted that, in the past, most PC users did not upgrade to a new OS, although Mac and other technophile consumers have been the exceptions. Most PC users obtained a new OS when they got a new PC, which Forrester calls replacement cycle upgrades.
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But, noted Forrester analyst JP Gownder, the upgrade behavior was much stronger for 7. He attributes this to 7’s being a thinner client program than was Windows Vista.
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Previous OSes, he said, were designed with the assumption that they would be used on newer, faster hardware. Many users had to upgrade to new hardware to run Vista, but 7 runs on a variety of existing PCs. The growth of netbooks and the continued use of XP on older machines led to the need for a thinner OS, Gownder said.
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The report found that about 43 percent of surveyed users upgraded to 7 on an existing PC from an older operating system, and about 45 percent got 7 when they bought a new PC.
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The Forrester report also found that there is widespread awareness of Windows 7, with the vast majority of U.S. consumers — about 90 percent — aware of it by the end of last year. More than 60 million…