Windows 7 is two months away from becoming the second newest consumer desktop operating system from Microsoft (it already is, if you count the Windows 8 Release to Manufacturing, or RTM), but will it surpass Windows XP in market share before Windows 8 is made generally available to the public? It's going to be a tight race, but it looks like Windows 7 will jump ahead by the end of August.
When Microsoft released Windows 7 in late 2009, it became an instant hit, especially in the consumer PC market. In contrast, enterprise users did not display quite the same eagerness in adopting the operating system, with most of them choosing instead to cling onto Windows XP for as long as possible. Earlier this month, though, Microsoft triumphantly announced that over 50 percent of all enterprise desktops were now running Windows 7. But stats don’t always tell the full story, do they?
At a special event in San Francisco earlier today, Microsoft raised the curtain on the 15th version of its Office productivity suite, which has historically been a huge cash cow for the company. Speaking at the said press event, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the new Office “will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8.” Well, turns out there really aren’t an awful lot of things out there beyond Windows 8 that can fire up the new Office, for Office 2013’s pyrotechnics are reserved for Windows 8 and Windows 7 only and users with older operating systems will need to upgrade in order to get in on the action.
Windows 8 is almost here but Windows 7 is nevertheless just starting to hits its stride, nearly three years after its launch. According to StatCounter, Microsoft's flagship operating system snatched the "Most Used O.S" crown from Windows XP sometime in September 2011, but last month, Windows 7 cracked an even more monumental plateau: it now owns over 50 percent of the total O.S. market.
At the time of the Windows 8 Release Preview’s release last month, Microsoft spilled the beans on a special upgrade offer for those who buy eligible Windows 7-based PCs between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013. It did not reveal anything regarding the upgrade path for existing Windows users, though. But you may no longer have to wait until an official announcement from Redmond to know where you stand on the road to Windows 8, as a veteran Microsoft watcher claims to have the scoop on Microsoft’s Windows 8 upgrade plans.
With the rapid rise of tablets, analysts have been arguing over which PC hardware company is the biggest in all the land: HP or Apple? Apple, of course, only enters the discussion if you count tablets as PCs. But regardless of how you look at technicalities, Microsoft wants to let you know that when it comes to the operating systems running on all that hardware, there's really only on sheriff in town: Windows.
Whenever a new Windows OS rears its head, Microsoft alleviates the concerns of wary would-be PC buyers who may be tempted to put off purchasing a new computer for couple of months by offering them a free upgrade to the soon-to-be-released Windows flavor. That may grind to a halt with Windows 8; several sources say Microsoft will still give recent Windows 7 PC buyers a chance to upgrade, but only if buyers shell out another $14.99.
Motorola Mobility has won an injunction against several Microsoft properties in Germany, including Windows 7, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and even the Xbox 360 game console. After initially postponing the ruling, Judge Dr. Holger Kircher of the Landgericht Mannheim (Mannheim Regional Court) issued his ruling on four of Motorola's complaints against Microsoft, ultimately awarding the mobile device maker an injunction against Microsoft on two patents.
If this is indeed the post-PC era as some are claiming, it isn’t having the kind of detrimental effects that one would expect it to have on Microsoft’s fiscal health. The Redmond-based software leviathan on Thursday announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 and the numbers are better than Wall Street’s expectations. Hit the jump for more.
Over the weekend, Microsoft began a two-year countdown to the extinction of Windows XP (end of Extended Support), encouraging XP holdouts to move to Windows 7. Now it’s the turn of Vista holdouts to seriously contemplate upgrading to Windows 7, for today (April 10, 2012) is the last day of the hugely unpopular XP successor’s mainstream support phase. Hit the jump for more.
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