This weekend, we noted that Microsoft"s lifecycle page for its Windows products had changed for Windows 7. Previously, the page said retail sales of the OS ended on October 30th, and that sales of PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled would end on October 30, 2014. Then the page was changed, showing that the dates for both categories had changed to "To be determined."
We contacted Microsoft for comment and got a response from a spokesperson, who indeed confirmed that while retail software sales of Windows 7 have now ended, there is no set deadline yet for PC OEMs to stop selling Windows 7 PCs. Here is the full statement:
We have yet to determine the end of sales date for PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled. The October 30, 2014 date that posted to the Windows Lifecycle page globally last week was done so in error. We have since updated the website to note the correct information; however, some non-English language pages may take longer to revert to correctly reflect that the end of sales date is “to be determined”. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused our customers. We’ll have more details to share about the Windows 7 lifecycle once they become available. Additionally, we are confirming that the Retail software end of sales date for Windows 7 did happen on October 30, 2013.
Windows 7 is still the most used OS on PCs, according to Net Applications, and many businesses looking to upgrade from Windows XP when its support ends on April 8th may decide to upgrade to Windows 7 PCs rather than Windows 8.
Image via Lenovo