The forthcoming launch of Microsoft's Windows Vista family of client operating environments will quickly have an impact on the makeup of the worldwide client operating environment market, according to IDC. The analysts project calendar year 2007 deployments of Windows Vista at 90 million units. IDC believes Windows Vista will quickly displace the majority of shipments of older Windows client operating systems, led by strong acceptance on the consumer front. They do not anticipate a short- or long-term acceleration of sales of Windows client products.

During calendar year 2007, Windows Vista Home products are projected to account for 90% of new Windows client operating environments deployed by home users. By comparison, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise will account for 35% of the new Windows client operating environments deployed by business users. During the second full year of availability, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise will grow to account for 80% of new deployments.

"After a long wait, the adoption of Windows Vista will take place almost immediately among consumers, while businesses will follow a decidedly more conservative adoption curve," says Al Gillen, research vice president, System Software at IDC. "Across the product mix, IDC expects to see a healthy movement toward Windows Vista Home Premium, while Windows Vista Ultimate will remain a niche product for some time to come."

During 2007, IDC expects that Windows Vista Home Basic will account for 67% of consumer purchases, with Windows Home Premium capturing 30% of the consumer acquisitions. Windows Vista Ultimate will account for 2% of the worldwide shipments. The balance of Windows Vista consumer shipments are home deployments of Windows Vista Business.

On the business front, 82% of Windows Vista deployments are expected to be the Business edition, while the remaining 18% will be Windows Vista Enterprise.

Through 2010, IDC forecasts Windows client operating environments to experience a 2005-2010 CAGR of 8.2%, leading to a total in excess of 200,000 annual shipments of Windows COEs in 2010.

About the market research report

The IDC 36-page study, "Worldwide Windows Client Operating Environments 2006-2010 Forecast: Vista Expands Windows COE Market Opportunities But Won't Accelerate Growth" (Doc #203733; October 2006), reviews the performance of the Windows client operating environment (COE) market during 2005 and provides a forecast through 2010 for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home, and Windows XP Professional, as well as full-detail forecasts for Windows Vista client products.

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