Would Windows 7 make inroads into businesses by 2011?

Microsoft Corp's Windows 7 has been gaining market share at the expense of Windows XP. Recently, the Windows 7 surpassed the 5% market share milestone, which is more than the total market share of all versions of Apple's Mac OS X.

According to latest survey by a research firm, it is reported that about 89% of enterprises surveyed plan to use Windows 7 by 2011. The reason for the high switch over is statement from the Redmond giant that it will discontinue Windows XP sometime in 2010. However, it will support XP SP3 until 2014.

The report also suggests that about 8% of the enterprises had already opted for Windows 7, 31% will switch by the first half of 2010 and rest in the second half of 2010. The research report suggests that the enterprise segment is ready to accept the new version of Windows operating system from Microsoft.

Microsoft offers Windows 7, Office 2007 discounts

To increase the market share of Windows 7, the company is targeting SMBs clients by allowing them to upgrade to the new OS and the Office 2007 productivity suite at half off the suggested retail pricing. However, for eligibility, customers have to be a part of Microsoft's Open Value Subscription (OVS) program and presently using one of the listed prior versions of those products.

Besides the original program, which expires on June 30, 2010, and consists of people upgrading from Windows Vista and Office 2003, Microsoft has now expanded the scope of the promotion to include Windows XP and Office XP users as well.

Microsoft preps Windows 7 for SP1 testing

Before the launch of Windows 7 in October 22nd, the leading research firm Gartner had announced that the enterprises should wait for Windows 7's first service pack so that the company will issue all the patches and bug fixes.

According to the latest report, the software giant has prepared the code for the new operating system's first service pack. It is reported that the company has included various already-issued security patches as well as new bug fixes. Hence, the company has been aggressively working on to replace its ten year old horse with Windows 7.

Office 2010 to counter Google web apps

The above survey also indicated that the enterprises are inclined towards Google for various web apps rather than Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft will launch its Office 2010 in mid-2010, which will provide Web-based versions of its most commonly used applications viz. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Microsoft Corp has announced the prices for the retail versions of its Office 2010 productivity suite in US. It is reported that there will be four versions of Office 2010 available via retail outlets, which include Office Home and Student priced at $149, Office Home and Business at $279, Office Professional at $499, and Office Professional Academic at $99.

Further, the companies are also more inclined towards Google for cloud computing instead of Microsoft's Azure Platform. However, large enterprises are interested in the Microsoft's platform but small enterprises are leaning toward Google, Amazon or any other cloud computing platform, the survey report.