Windows 7 will become the leading operating system (OS)
worldwide in the PC installed base, running on 42 percent of PCs in use by the
end of 2011, according to Gartner.

Gartner’s latest PC OS forecast shows 94 percent of new
PCs will be shipped with Windows 7 in 2011.

“Steady improvements in IT budgets in 2010 and 2011
are helping to accelerate the deployment of Windows 7 in enterprise markets in
the U.S. and Asia/Pacific, where Windows 7 migrations started in large volume
from 4Q10,” said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner.

However, the economic uncertainties in Western Europe,
political instability in selected Middle East and Africa (MEA) countries and
the economic slowdown in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011
will likely lead to slightly late and slow deployment for Windows 7 across
those regions.

Windows 7 is likely to be the last version of Microsoft
OS that gets deployed to everybody through big corporatewide migration. In the
future, many organizations will also use alternative client computing
architectures for standard PCs with Windows OS, and move toward virtualization
and cloud computing in the next five years.

 

“By the end of 2011, nearly 635 million new PCs
worldwide are expected to be shipped with Windows 7. Many enterprises have been
planning their deployment of Windows 7 for the last 12 to 18 months, and are
now moving rapidly to Windows 7.”

Shipments of Apple iMacs and Mac OS share on new PCs have
seen increases in the last 12 months. Mac OS was shipped on 4 percent of new
PCs worldwide in 2010 versus 3.3 percent in 2008. Mac OS is forecast to be on
4.5 percent of PCs in 2011, and grow to 5.2 percent of new PCs in 2015.
Shipments will grow stronger in mature markets where consumers are buying into
the Apple product ecosystem.

The adoption of Mac PCs and Mac OS is a result of Apple’s
ability to grow well above the market average in the last 12 to 24 months,
thanks to its ease of use from the user interface (UI) point of view and ease
of integration with other Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
and the existing Apple ecosystem of applications and programs.

The Mac OS share still varies greatly by region, as Apple
has much stronger presence in North America and Western Europe. The fastest
growth is expected to happen in selected emerging countries, where Apple and
Mac OS are growing from a small base.

Linux OS is expected to remain niche over the next five
years with its share below 2 percent because of the remaining high costs of
application migration from Windows to Linux. In the consumer market, Linux will
be run on less than 1 percent of PCs, as Linux’s success with mini-notebooks
was short-lived and few mini-notebooks are preloaded with it today.

Gartner does not expect Chrome OS, Android or webOS to
get any significant market share on PCs in the next few years. Analysts believe
that to get any consideration as an alternative for a traditional PC, lighter
OSs will first need to get strong positions on emerging client devices such as
Web books and media tablets. Even then, it is unlikely that they will have any
impact on Microsoft and Windows OS’s hold on positions on traditional professional
PCs in the time frame of the current forecast. This is because of application
compatibility issues and the high proportion of Windows-specific applications
within many enterprises.

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]