First, there is increasing pressure to get all workers running Windows 7 as support for Windows XP winds down. At the same time, the demand from workers to use Windows 8 on tablets will only ramp up in anticipation of its release a year from now.

Hypothetically, the corporate landscape in a year and half will consist of Windows XP and Windows 7 running on PCs, and newly available tablets running Windows 8 competing with iPads and Android-based tablets.

"From an IT perspective, users will start clamoring for Windows 8 tablets because they are cooler than the stock corporate Lenovo Thinkpad laptops," says Aaron Suzuki, CEO of Prowess, an IT consulting and managed services company that provides enterprises with OS deployment and virtualization technologies. "But that's just more devices for IT to manage and migrate to and there will be application compatibility problems."

Windows 7 has been available since October 2009, but it is only recently seeing real enterprise adoption. Last week, Web metrics firm Net Applications reported that , to 49.8 percent. Although Windows XP still runs on the majority of Windows machines, it is no longer the majority leader among all operating systems, a title the OS has held for years.