Windows 7 celebrates its first birthday today, a year on from the retail availability of the fastest selling operating system of all time.
It has been an incredibly successful year for Windows 7. Microsoft has confirmed that it has now sold over 240 million licenses of Windows 7 and that figure is expected to hit 300 million before the end of the year. Microsoft's success with Windows 7 began before the product was even widely available. Released in October 2009, the operating system has received praise from consumers, businesses and the media. In November 2009, Windows 7 managed to surpass Apple's Snow Leopard market share in just two weeks. In early February it was revealed that Windows 7 had reached 10% market share in just three months.
Windows 7 has also driven an uptake of 64-bit computing. According to ChangeBASE research, conducted with senior IT decision makers, more than 65% of businesses hoped to migrate to Windows 7 within 12 months of its release. Over 50% of those migrating will be choosing the 64-bit route. Microsoft confirmed in July that nearly half of all Windows 7 PCs run 64-bit versions.
Microsoft is currently readying its first Service Pack for Windows 7. A public beta version was made available earlier this year and Microsoft is currently compiling internal release candidate builds. We expect a release candidate to be available shortly, possibly in time for PDC 2010 next week. A final release is expected in the first quarter of next year.
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