You’ll be hearing a lot about Windows 8 in the coming weeks, largely because Microsoft has scheduled the consumer preview of its soon-to-be-released operating system on February 29. While the new operating system is designed to support mobile devices, the key to its success or failure will most likely (still) be third-party drivers.

Is Consumer Success For Windows 8 Critical?

Whether or not the consumer accepts Windows 8 depends largely upon how many of their current devices those consumers can take along for the ride. But even if an operating system isn’t a hit with the consumers, that doesn’t mean the OS will be labeled a flop.

Enterprise systems account for a significant portion of sales among the installed Windows user base, but enterprise licensing does come with some benefits that just aren’t available to consumers. Enterprise clients can choose which version of the Windows OS they use, so many enterprise license customers use that as a way to control, forestall or even avoid a particular version of the operating system.

Enterprise adoption of a Microsoft operating system typically lags behind the consumer migration, often by 18-24 months. In other words, many enterprises may just be ramping up a migration to Windows 7 – so a move to Windows 8 may not even be in the cards until 2014!

Does this deliberate approach to upgrading at the enterprise level interfere with the apparent success of an operating system? While analysts are sometimes quick to point out that Windows XP is still the reigning champion of installed Microsoft operating systems, enterprise IT professionals will readily admit that they have no plans to hold onto XP as their OS of choice.

More likely, the rapid upgrade pace of the Windows product line means that enterprise users may deliberately skip a revision level to suit their own internal needs. Many corporate users skipped the Windows Vista upgrade, largely because it was designed to appeal to consumers and didn’t play nice with the Windows Server 2003 that so many enterprise users had installed.

Will enterprise users skip Windows 7 in favor of Windows 8? Probably not, though Windows 8 will do a better job of supporting mobile computing than Windows 7 can currently pull off. Mobile computing is a consumer darling, but it has strong potential for the enterprise market as well. It’s a safe bet that both consumers and enterprise users will migrate to Windows 8. Eventually.

Photo Credit: beve4, via Flickr