Most Companies Don't Plan an Early Switch to Windows 8 [REPORT]

Most companies don't plan to switch to Windows 8 immediately after its release, and some may never make the switch, Reuters reports.

The new operating system from Microsoft, which hits the market on Oct. 26, has numerous touch-friendly features which should make it equally as interesting to tablet owners as it is to PC owners. Many business owners, however, think Windows 8 is a consumer-oriented product which offers few new features to businesses.

"Windows 8 is, frankly, more of a consumer platform than it is a business platform, so it's not something that makes any sense from a business perspective at this juncture. There is really no additional business functionality that Windows 8 gives you that I see," Doug Johnson, head of risk management policy at the American Bankers Association, told Reuters.

Gartner analyst Michael Silver assesses the vast majority of businesses think the same. "We believe 90 percent of large organizations will not deploy Windows 8 broadly, and at its peak, we expect about 20 percent of PCs in large organizations will run Windows 8," he said.

This is nothing new, as businesses are traditionally slower than regular users when it comes to adoption of new software. But the 20 percent figure sounds grim indeed -- for comparison, in July 2012, more than 50 percent of enterprise desktops were running Windows 7.