Windows 10 Breaks Traditional PC Hardware and OS Upgrade Links

Posted on by Andy Miller

With figures (Gartner) showing Windows 10 predicted to represent 75% of the professional PC market by 2021, continued PC sales and improved Windows 10  back-end management, Windows 10 is making (historically) time and resource consuming Windows OS and hardware upgrade projects a thing of the past, and is breaking the link between the two.

Mobile PCs A Popular Business Choice For Content Creation

Even though the whole global PC market is in decline, traditional PCs are set to decline by 3% in 2019 to total 189 million units, and smartphones are users’ primary mobile devices, mobile PCs look set to remain popular purchases for businesses because they are needed for content creation.

With laptop PCs running Windows 10, this is a key reason why Windows 10 represents such a large share of the professional PC market.

The SaaS model with its automatic bi-annual automatic upgrades is, therefore, the step to making teams responsible for OS upgrades in businesses a thing of the past.

Left Behind and At Risk

The growth, popularity, and general effectiveness of Windows10, coupled with the ending of support for older versions is making businesses still running older platforms (e.g. Windows 7) and thinking of putting off the upgrade to Windows 10 until 2020 look likely to be left behind in IT effectiveness terms, and at risk in security terms (support for Windows 7 support is scheduled to end in January 2020).

Businesses are also realising that:

  • They can’t skip a version i.e. waiting and skipping to Windows 11 is not an option – migration to Windows 10 may as well happen sooner rather than later.
  • Windows 10 is a modern operating system that allows organisations to run cloud applications and provide security much more effectively.
  • Microsoft has aligned upgrades of its cloud productivity suite, Office 365, to Windows 10, so not switching to Windows 10 could mean a competitive disadvantage.
  • Windows 10 enables businesses to automatically receive new, potentially value-adding features every six months.

Changing The Nature of Upgrades

With most businesses using Windows 10 and receiving automatic software upgrades every month, and more enterprise applications being consumed as software as a service (SaaS), hardware upgrades are more likely to be driven by wear and tear in future rather than by the availability of a new PC operating system from Microsoft.  This is the reason why Windows 10 has effectively disconnected the link between PC hardware and Windows operating system upgrades.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Figures show that laptop PCs with Windows 10 loaded on them are (and will continue to be for the near future) an important tool for many businesses, and that the automatic bi-annual upgrade and SaaS model of Windows 10 has disconnected the traditional link between PC hardware and Windows operating system upgrades.  The migration to Windows 10 can also not only free up resources once needed just to ensure OS upgrades, but can also improve security, competitiveness and operational effectiveness.

Windows 10’s successes and the weaknesses and threats of holding out until 2020 before upgrading are presenting strong arguments for businesses to take the plunge sooner and move to Windows 10.