Study predicts bear market for Windows 7

In a recent survey of 1100 IT professionals, 83 per cent of IT departments are not planning on adopting the new Windows operating system in the next year.

The study was carried out by research firm Dimensional Research with the backing of IT management vendor KACE.

According to the researchers, economic hardships and lingering doubts from Windows Vista were the main causes for apprehension.

Overall 83 per cent of those surveyed said that their companies would be skipping Vista altogether and moving from Windows XP straight to Windows 7.

Of the 17 per cent of respondents who did plan on upgrading to Windows 7 in the next twelve year, more than half said that a desire to avoid Vista was the main reason for the move.

Additionally, 50 per cent of the respondents said that their companies had considered switching to Linux or MacOS systems rather than a new version of Windows.

"Negative public perception of Vista seems to have helped build this layer of distrust with Windows 7," said Dimensional Research senior analyst Diane Hagglund.

"The research shows that despite the early enthusiasm for Windows 7, organisations are still wary about adoption, demonstrating what could be described as an even overly cautious approach."

Most companies do, however, see themselves adopting Windows 7 in the long run. Though just 17 per cent plan on updating in the next 12 months, 42 per cent believe that they will be running Windows 7 within 12-24 months, and an additional 24 per cent plan on updating within the next 24-36 months.

The news comes as Microsoft has officially ended the official support period for Windows XP.

The aging OS doesn't seem to be worrying too many admins, however. Some 72 per cent of those surveyed in the study said that they were more concerned about upgrading to Windows 7 than maintaining an outdated Windows XP system.