Windows users reluctant to upgrade, survey reveals

More than 70 percent of Microsoft Windows users won't be upgrading to Windows 8 in the near future, according to a survey released this week by antivirus software maker Avast.

The survey of 350,000 Avast users, more than 135,000 of them from the United States, showed that only nine percent of U.S. respondents said that Windows 8 was enticing them to buy a new computer.

The survey's findings, which were published by USA Today on Wednesday, was based on a U.S. sample composed of 65 percent Windows 7 users, 22 percent Windows XP users, and 8 percent Windows Vista users.

Of the 16 percent of U.S. users who said they plan to buy a new computer, 68 percent said they'll get one running Windows 8 and 12 percent said they intended to buy a Macintosh computer. In addition, 30 percent of Windows users with intentions to buy a new computer said they intended to buy an iPad.

The survey appeared just days after the head of Microsoft's Windows division, Steven Sinofsky, suddenly resigned his post at the company. The reason for Sinofsky's departure is still a subject of speculation but one theory is his boss Steve Ballmer was dissatisfied with the number of apps for Windows 8.

:story: PCWorld