Acer sees Win 7 as modest help

Acer chief Gianfranco Lanci told the press on Thursday that Windows 7 has had a noticeable but small impact on sales. The executive estimates that holiday PC sales should jump about 25 percent versus last year, when the economic crash hurt sales, but that they should only be flat compared to this summer. Much of the forecast was calculated after gauging the feature set early on.

Dell has also noticed a lift to its own sales but hasn't said whether it has planned for a more sustained boost.

The modest predictions mirror those of Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, who himself only anticipated small increases from the new OS. He and PC vendors expect that most customers will still buy PCs on their normal upgrade cycles rather than accelerate their plans to get Windows 7. Corporate buyers also remain hesitant as they typically require extended compatibility testing and will likely need new computers before they can upgrade.

By Electronista Staff