IT professionals are already eyeing Windows 8 to replace existing operating systems in the corporate world when it becomes available. 52 percent of those polled said they plan to upgrade to Microsoft's latest operating system, according to a survey of 973 tech professionals conducted by InformationWeek.
Of those 52 percent that said they would upgrade their business computers, 5 percent claimed they would deploy as soon as Windows 8 becomes available. 13 percent decided to play it safe and said they would make the switch within a year's time while 19 percent would do the deed within two years of the OS launching.
Digging deeper into the report, 10 percent of planned upgraders said they would do so on an as-needed basis. 24 percent said that all of their PCs would eventually get the upgrade while 34 percent said that at least three quarters of their machines would see Windows 8 at some point.
IT professionals typically aren't as gung-ho to deploy an untested operating system, so why are more than half of those questioned willing to do so? The main reason is because Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP in April 2014.
Although XP was initially released way back in 2001, it continues to hold a strong market share among Windows-based machines. The operating system only fell below 50 percent market share in July. Windows 7 is quickly gaining ground on the aging OS, however. As of July, Windows 7 held 27.87 percent of the worldwide OS market share compared to XP's 49.94 percent.