CDW Tracking Poll: Windows Vista Gaining Traction

January 13th, 2008 at 2:00 PM - News by Brad Cook

CDW Corporation on Monday announced the results of its third Windows Vista Tracking Poll, finding that adoption or evaluation of Microsoft’s new operating system in the business world has risen to 48 percent, up from the 29 percent found in the February 2007 poll. In addition, 35 percent of the respondents are in the process of migrating to the new OS, up from the previous poll’s 12 percent.

Of the 48 percent who have already adopted, or are now evaluating, Vista, 13 percent have completed their migration while another 61 percent expect to do so within the next 12 months. That 13 percent is up from 6 percent last time, although the percentage of those who plan on completing their migration within three or six months has declined since the previous poll: the former dropped from 17 percent to 11 percent, while the latter dropped from 25 percent to 21 percent. The percentage of respondents who said it will happen in 12 months was up one point, and the percentage of those who expect it to occur in more than 18 months was up three points.

Interest in most benefits and features was also down from the previous poll, with only one category -- improved search and organization -- up (by one point) and one category -- improved Windows update -- remaining the same. Categories that dropped the most were: improved security (down 13 points), new networking features (down 6 points), and improved patch management (down 6 points). Respondents could choose more than one category.

CDW also looked at adoption of Microsoft Office 2007 and found that 24 percent of those surveyed have upgraded to the new version of the suite, up from 6 percent last February. Of the 23 percent who said they plan on upgrading, 78 percent expect to do so over the next year.

Walker Information conducted the poll in collaboration with CDW between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7, 2007. The margin of error for the 772 IT decision makers surveyed was plus or minus 3.5 percent. CDW’s Web site hosts a complete PDF of the results.