Windows 8 in the enterprise? Not next year, says Gartner

24.10.2012
ORLANDO -- Enterprises will not be moving quickly to adopt , and most will skip next year, according to market research firm Gartner.

Users at Gartner's Symposium/ITexpo conference tended to back up the view that was summarized by Gartner Research Director Peter Sondergaard. He told attendees here that "however good the prospects look for Windows 8 in the consumer market or for , there are no compelling business imperatives to drive legacy devices in business towards Windows 8."

"Therefore, 90% of enterprises will bypass broadscale deployment of Windows 8 through at least 2014," Sondergaard said.

That does not mean Windows 8 is on the ropes as it is introduced at an event in New York City on Thursday. Large enterprises rarely move quickly to a new operating system. Applications have to be tested on it, and some users believe in waiting for the release of the first service pack before considering an upgrade.

If enterprises don't like a Microsoft product, which is what happened with the Vista OS, they have shown a willingness to bypass it. Gartner isn't saying that this will be the case with Windows 8.

What Gartner analysts see are more selective rollouts of Windows 8. The emergence of tablets and as a primary device for some types of works, such as those in sales, means the days of massive, single standard platform enterprise-wide upgrades are over in many companies.