Over 500 IT companies have said their piece, in the US anyway

Nov 2, 2012 16:03 GMT  ·  By

Since the first week after the launch of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system has passed, we can finally see what everyone thinks about it, or at least what IT companies feel after such a short time.

PC Helps is a provider of on-demand support for core office software applications and mobile devices used every day by corporate employees.

After 24/7 supervision of the market and a series of Windows 8 Pulser Surveys, it has managed to gauge the feelings of over 500 IT leaders and managers from US-based companies with at least 500 employees. 70% of the responders came from companies with 2,500 or more workers.

Of the total, 54% believe that Windows 8 will be harder to swallow than previous iterations of the OS, due to the new user interface. This is not to say that the opinions were negative, they weren't. Still, it might take some effort to change from Windows 7 to 8.

On that note, 25% of all those surveyed feel their organizations have already decided to move to Windows 8. Some will do it this fall, but most will wait until the middle of 2013.

It did not hurt that 70% of all those who responded indicated their organizations are on Windows 7, or in the process of moving to Windows 7. Jumping from here to Windows 8 should be easy enough.

Nevertheless, as far as enjoyment of the operating system goes, people weren't exactly able to make a decision, for the most part.

Only 38% of the respondents felt they'd seen enough of Windows 8 to make an opinion, while 25% said they had no exposure to it at all. Of the former, around 45% were undecided, while 55% had mostly positive reactions.

Overall, the general opinion about Windows 8 is reserved but cautiously optimistic. Now we just need to see a consumer survey and we can paint a better image.