Windows 7 boosts Microsoft customer satisfaction
There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that Windows users are happier running Windows 7, but now there’s some figures to support that theory. A market research firm says customer satisfaction for Microsoft users has hit a two-year high.
A survey by YouGov, reported by Bloomberg, shows a significant increase in the proportion of Windows users who report being satisfied with Microsoft products. From 64 percent the day before Windows 7′s release, the rating rose to 67 percent a week later.
That may have been nothing more than a statistical quirk, but it appears the more people get the system and the longer they use it, the happier they are. By the end of 2009 the approval rating hit 73 percent, the highest figure since YouGov began tracking Microsoft two years earlier.
The firm says most of the credit is due to Windows 7, though there may be some long-term boosts from people who’ve been impressed by the Bing search engine.
The news comes as Windows 7 hits another symbolic milestone, cracking the 10 percent market share figure for the first time. That’s potentially misleading as the statistics, from Net Applications, cover last weekend. If the pattern of Vista is repeated, it’s likely home users (who make up a bigger proportion of computer use at weekend) are adopting the system at a quicker rate than businesses, meaning the real overall share may be slightly lower.
Either way, Windows 7 is certainly moving steadily in the right direction. The real question is whether it’s gaining at the expense of Mac and Linux, or simply coming about from Windows users upgrading. There doesn’t seem much evidence yet of the overall Windows market share shifting since the new system came out.
One particularly interesting note from the statistics, picked up by CNET’s Ina Fried, is that Windows 7 has its highest market share, 15 percent, in Redmond, Washington. While it’s easy to see why the system would be most popular in Microsoft’s home town, it’s surprising that this would make such a difference.
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