Microsoft: Enterprise interested in Windows 7 upgrades, but timing uncertain

Business customers are showing "incredible interest" in Windows 7 deployments, but the exact timing of the upgrade cycle is up for debate, according to the software giant's financial chief.

Microsoft CFO Peter Klein, speaking at a Morgan Stanley technology conference, provided some color into the corporate Windows 7 upgrade cycle. So far, Windows 7 has been a consumer development, but at some point the upgrade baton needs to be passed to the enterprise.

Mary Jo Foley on Tuesday highlighted Klein's comments, but it's worth delving into the Windows 7 cycle. Here's what Klein said exactly:

Heading into 2010 and 2011, we're starting to see incredible interest from our enterprise customers to start deployments of Windows 7. It's been -- the interest has been very high, and we are now having conversations with the majority of our enterprise customers who are making plans to deploy Windows 7. So we think the enterprise deployment ramp will be great for that product.

The wild card is timing. When will this interest turn into deployments?

Get: Windows 7 email alerts Mary Jo Foley email alerts

Klein seems to think that consumers can hold the Windows 7 fort for a while longer. He noted:

We think there is sustainability in the consumer side. A lot of that is driven by some of the great innovation that you're seeing in the form factors. I think that's really exciting, and so that should continue.

We see a lot of strength in emerging markets, which I think remains a long-term growth opportunity for us. We are -- our attach and our penetration is a lot lower today in emerging markets, and that's where we see a lot of growth. As a matter of fact, in Q2 we talked about emerging markets. It actually grew in the mid-teens versus single digits for developed markets, so emerging markets remain a great opportunity and specifically for PC.

As we mentioned, there will be an enterprise refresh cycle. It's not precisely certain when that will happen and how fast it will happen. But as we've been saying consistently for the last several quarters, we expect it to happen this calendar year and go into next calendar year, and that will be a really good thing. That will be a really good catalyst for growth for our PC business.

As Intel noted recently, the timing of Windows 7 enterprise deployments will depend on a lot of planning for things like User Access Control (UAC) and yes, moving from IE 6.