Windows 7 launch set to boost hardware buys, says Intel

Intel Corp is hoping that the launch of Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system will prompt corporate buyers to switch hardware in 2010. This was revealed by a company executive. With the new Windows 7 coming along, this is going to be a factor in corporate computer purchasing. This will start moving the PC market. Microsoft, whose software supports more than 90 percent of personal computers worldwide, eventually released Windows 7 on October 22, with a hope to win back customers disappointed by its previous Vista platform. Windows 7 is now mainly seen in the consumer segment. In 2010 it will probably use Windows 7 and they will be the need new hardware.

US investment bank Morgan Stanley put a halt over growing optimism among investors and executives that a push in corporate and consumer spending would generate chip sales, and adding that revenue growth could peak in early 2010. Analysts also add that US unemployment, already above 10 percent, would sink consumer sentiment. Some also say the load of computers at companies may actually be fresher than four to five years old, which is a typical replacement age.

However there was optimism about a corporate inventory refresh cycle coming soon. One cannot forecast these cycles perfectly, but it had a big one in 1999 with the Y2K and the dotcom burst, then there was another refresh about four years later and one more is expected to be coming soon. However in the consumer segment unemployment was not necessarily a dampening factor for computer sales. But it is a harsh reality and there is the need for consumer computers which is increasing. There is a lot of retraining and job-seeking prevalent, people have to be able to deploy 21st-century skills to compete for jobs. It is also observed that sales in emerging economies, particularly in China and in Latin America, are growing continuously.

Around the same time, the government purchases of computers for education around the world have shooted to over 20 percent. Portugal has in the last year launched a program to equip school children with 500,000 ultra-cheap, locally-assembled laptops which was replicated on Intel's Classmate PC. Venezuela has already come into an agreement to buy 1 million of these from Portugal.