[Vic S]

I bet most of those are computers of large international to smaller businesses that need to upgrade for contractual reasons.

[dayglored]

> I bet most of those are computers of large international to smaller businesses that need to upgrade for contractual reasons.

I disagree -- I think most of the new activations are new machines (pre-installed) and upgrades on individual personal computers.

There may be some companies that are contractually obligated to upgrade but if so I call them reckless and damned foolish. It's NEVER been a good idea to pull the rug out from under a business network of functioning computers and expect a smooth transition with a new OS.

If I had to guess, I'd say that businesses will be the LAST to upgrade their existing 7 and 8 installations. They have to run a business, not play Beta-tester for Microsoft.

[Oceander]

I bet most of those are computers of large international to smaller businesses that need to upgrade for contractual reasons.

I'm not so sure of that, particularly with the larger businesses. As far as I know, Microsoft will continue supporting some large enterprise users on the older OSes for a lot longer than it will support retail users. The bread and butter for MS there is getting the monthly support fees, not the initial licensing fees.