14 DAY TRIAL // A new research shows that more than 8 in 10 firms are planning to install Windows 10 in the coming years, many of them in anticipation of Windows 7 end of support due in 2020.
Windows 10, which was offered as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 consumers in the first 12 months of availability, has a market share of approximately 24 percent, according to various third-party research firms.
Microsoft originally planned to bring the OS on 1 billion devices by the end of FY2017, but the company recently acknowledged that more time would be needed to reach this goal. The latest figures point to approximately 400 million devices running Windows 10.
The survey, which was performed by CCS Research in late 2016 included 400 IT decision makers in Europe and the United States, brought forward results that pretty much speak for themselves: companies plan to migrate en-masse to Windows 10 in the coming years.
Windows 7 getting closer to EOL
86 percent of the companies said they plan to install the new operating system, with 74 percent of them claiming they intend to accelerate deployment and switch to Windows 10 in the next year.
Microsoft says it also spotted similar trends with its telemetry data, pointing out that “significant” acceleration in the rate of Windows 10 deployment is indeed being recorded.
The migration to Windows 10 is not a huge surprise, mostly because the majority of these companies are running Windows 7, the operating system that would be discontinued in January 2020. With the transition planned to complete in 3 years, this means that most companies would switch to Windows 10 just in time for Windows 7 EOL, allowing them to remain secure and continue getting updates and security patches.
Windows 10 is also projected to receive another major update called Creators Update next month, and this OS release is likely to boost adoption figures in the enterprise market.