LONDON: Microsoft will continue to sell Windows 7 and 8.1 to OEMs until 31 October 2016. Retail boxed sales are finished.
While some claim that this forces new buyers to adopt Windows 10, on the flip side W7 should have stopped selling in October 2014 – two years after its release. This is a welcome amnesty as it allows more time to consider the options.
While Windows 10 is a free upgrade to existing users until the end of July 2016, enterprise users that have based a standard operating environment (SOE) on W7 will be most affected.
The reason is simple. W7 was adopted by enterprise after retiring WXP. This portion of the 1 billion Window devices accounts for about 500 million machines. Enterprise’s replacement cycle is about four years e.g. next year is the beginning of the cycle so they will have the choice of upgrade existing machines for free or purchase new machines – the latter being more likely as most would finance via lease.
