<img border="0" src="../logos/ms_flag.gif" align="right"><font size="3">Microsoft: Expect 1 Billion-Plus Windows PCs by 2010</font>
The Redmond software vendor says the Windows market is nowhere near saturated.


TORONTO - There are 600 million Windows PCs today, according to Microsoft. But by 2010, there will be more than 1 billion of them, company officials claim.

Will Poole, the head of Microsoft's Windows client business, made these bold predictions here at the annual Microsoft worldwide partner conference in his keynote on Monday morning.

Poole said Microsoft expects the demand to come from enterprises in developed countries, all sizes of companies in developing markets and from OEMs that tailor Windows for specific markets.

Many industry watchers have talked about the Windows desktop market as being a saturated one, with little potential for the huge unit and revenue growth of the past. But that's not the picture Microsoft's painting.

"PC replacements are at the top of what IT will be spending on this year," Poole predicted.

According to Microsoft's figures, 35 percent of enterprises are still running Windows 9X-based versions of Windows (like Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition) and/or NT Workstation. These users are ripe for upgrades, Poole said.

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