Windows 8 will make little impact on the industrial PC (IPC) market in the next three years, according to a new report by IMS Research (now part of IHS).
IHS senior analyst for IPCs Toby Colquhoun commented, “A large number of IPCs continue to be sold with Windows XP.
"The functionality provided by this platform is suitable for a great number of applications, and so there is no urgency for most IPC customers to change operating system.
"That said, in 2013, few industrial PC suppliers will offer Windows XP with their newest products. Most customers adopting the latest IPC technology will choose Windows 7 as it has a familiar user interface and is already proven in other applications.”
“It is projected that Windows 8 adoption will follow the pattern set by previous Microsoft operating systems. Widespread acceptance will take at least four years as IPC suppliers release new compatible products and end users gain confidence in using the new technology.”
Other findings from the 2013 report are:
- IPCs running a virtualised environment will grow at a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 16% between 2011 and 2016, compared to 12% for unit shipments over the same period.
- Increasing future adoption of ARM technology is projected to change the operating system mix, principally benefiting Android and Linux.
- Embedded variants of operating systems will grow fastest.
- Sales of IPCs with Windows 7 are expected to exceed those with Windows XP in 2014.
The World Market for Industrial PCs – 2013 Edition analyses the adoption of eight operating systems (Windows CE, Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded, Windows Embedded Standard 2009, Windows 7, Windows Embedded Standard 7, Linux and VxWorks) for each IPC product type.
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