Microsoft expects half of new PCs to have Windows 7 next one year

NEW DELHI: Microsoft India today said that it expects to have about half of the new personal computers sold in the country over the next one year to have the newly launched Windows 7 operating system.

"Over the next 12 months we hope to have at least half of the new PCs (sold) operating on Windows 7," Microsoft India Chairman Ravi Venkatesan told news agency on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here.

The new Microsoft operating system was launched late last month.

However, until Friday due to some issues with the Customs, it was not available in India.

"Customs have some issues. But it has been resolved. The product will be made available in India from next week," he added.

He also said the current sales of about 3-3.35 million PCs per year would go up on the back of the economic recovery.

If that happens, he expects that around 2 million PCs will have genuine Windows 7 as the operating system.

India has about 35 million install-base of PCs and typically 95 per cent are running on Windows operating system -- pirated or genuine.

In the case of Windows, piracy rate is 60 per cent, he added.