Techonology:The Economic Impact of Microsoft's Windows 7

• The Economic Impact of Microsoft's Windows 7, Worldwide - IDC White Paper

• Windows 7, Microsoft’s follow-on to Windows Vista (launched in 2006), will become commercially available in October 2009. IDC’s forecast for Windows 7 shipments
  shows a brisk uptake: 177 million units to be shipped by the end of 2010.

• By the end of 2010, more than 7 million people worldwide in the IT industry and at IT using organizations will be working with Window 7, or 19% of the global IT workforce.1 The 350,000-plus IT companies that produce, sell, or distribute products or services running on Windows 7 will employ 3 million; another 4 million will be employed at IT-using firms.

• For every dollar of Microsoft revenue from launch in October 2009 to the end of 2010 from Windows 7, the ecosystem beyond Microsoft will reap $18.52.2 During that period, this ecosystem will sell more than $320 billion in products and services revolving around Windows 7.

• To achieve those revenues, companies in the Microsoft global ecosystem working with Windows 7 are expected to invest nearly $115 billion by the end of 2010 developing, marketing, and supporting products and services built around Windows 7.