July 10th, 2009

Windows 7 - Where's the beef? How much?!!? Why, and why risk it?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 1:43 am

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: PC, Microsoft Windows XP, Operating System, Microsoft Windows Vista, Beef, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Over the past few weeks I’ve received several hundred emails from Hardware 2.0 readers on the subject of upgrading to Windows 7. The emails have come from a broad cross-section of the PC using market, from home users running a single PC, all the way to decision makers at large corporations. Reading these emails has given me tremendous insight into how people on the ground think about and see Windows 7 (rather than pundits, which, let’s face it, live in a different world …).

What’s interesting is that overall, people are very excited about Windows 7. They like what they see. The Windows 7 betas, along with the and Release Candidate, have spread far and wide and have been installed by both a greater number, and a far more diverse range of people than any other OS beta I’ve come across. Even people who were burned by Vista and went back to XP seem to like what they see.

But the message I’m getting is that there’s a big gulf between liking a product, and liking it enough to pay for it. In fact, while about 5% of people said they were ready and willing to upgrade now, and another 10% would do so in a year or so (either through an upgrade, or by buying a new PC), a large number of people are playing the waiting game. The reasons why people are likely to avoid 7 boil down to four basic groups:

The four groups –>

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