75% of businesses plan to adopt Windows 10 within first two years

An overwhelming 96 percent IT professionals said they’re interested in Windows 10, with 60 percent stating that their IT department has already evaluated a preview version, according to a survey conducted by Spiceworks. The survey of over 500 IT professionals said that nearly all respondents expressed at least some interest in Windows 10 – (96 percent), to be exact. “But based on their patterns of adoption for OSes in general, it’s fair to say that being interested doesn’t necessarily mean they’re booking flights, at least not right away. When we asked IT pros why they typically start using a new OS, more than two-thirds (69 percent) indicated that they do so on an as-needed basis, such as when a current system reaches end of support (EOS),” Spiceworks stated. [caption id=“attachment_2317090” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Microsoft[/caption] About three quarters of respondents plan to adopt Windows 10 for home use within the first year. The two-year business outlook is also bright, with almost three-quarters taking the Windows 10 (for) business flight. What is the differentiating factor that could make more IT pros board Windows 10? Sixty-four percent of IT professionals said they were most interested in the return of the Start button, 55 percent cited the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1, and 51 percent referenced enhanced security. Seventy-nine percent cited hardware/software compatibility as their greatest concern followed by early release bugs (65 percent), user training (59 percent), and lack of third-party support (51 percent), and time required for upgrade process (43 percent). In addition, the survey showed that businesses typically value OS stability (68 percent) and application compatibility (62 percent) as the main reasons to consider an OS. The latest features and functionality rank much lower on the list (14 percent) of drivers. According to the survey, 75 percent of IT pros are planning to adopt Windows 10 for business use within the first two years, versus immediately. “Companies may wait it out to see early reports of how Windows 10 performs, or until third-party applications are fully supported on the new OS.” Almost half (48 percent) of survey respondents say having a common OS for both PCs and mobile devices makes them more likely to consider Windows 10. Even so, only a third (31 percent) say they’d be interested in having Windows 10 for smartphones, compared with those interested in Windows 10 on laptops (85 percent), desktops (83 percent), and tablets (50 percent). “Aggregated Spiceworks network data backs up the positive outlook for Windows 10. Two years after launch, Windows 7 had a penetration rate of 60 percent and a total market share of 14.4 percent. Based on the survey data presented in this report, Windows 10 is expected to have a penetration rate of 73 percent after two years–and according to our calculations, an expected market share of 17 percent,” the survey said.