UK Windows 7 sales lag behind Europe

New operating system has 'added sparkle to the market' despite uptake lagging behind continental Europe

Davies: more people are going for powerful notebooks

Early sales of Windows 7 in the UK have been significantly slower than on the continent, distribution data from Context reveals.

The news came as Gartner figures revealed the UK is now the only top-three European economy whose PC market has yet to return to growth.

According to Context, just less than a quarter (24 per cent) of PCs shipped
by UK distributors between 19 October and 1 November were equipped with Windows 7. The equivalent figure for Europe’s seven top economies was 36 per cent.

However, the comparable figure for Vista in its first two weeks of launch was 22 per cent across Europe and 15 per cent in the UK.

Context co-founder Jeremy Davies said the UK shortfall was no cause for concern.
“Everybody was cautiously optimistic because of what happened with Vista and it is a case of so far, so good,” he told CRN.

“Windows 7 has put a certain amount of sparkle back into the market.”

Davies said the UK figures had been impacted by a spike in sales of ‘twin-load’ machines that allow users to upgrade to Windows 7.

“There may have been more machines bought with the intention of upgrading to Windows 7,” he said.

According to Davies, the launch of Windows 7 has sparked uptake of higher-spec notebooks.

“More people are going for powerful notebooks than in the past so the downward spiral in prices has been tempered,” he explained. “This can only be good news for the channel.”

Barry Dodhia, marketing manager at VAR Hemini, said he was happy with Windows 7’s performance, but that corporate and SME customers were adopting a cautious stance.

“The majority downgraded to XP Pro for Vista and they are continuing to do so for Windows 7,” he said.