It works the way you want at home, at work or on the go. Photo above shows Microsoft Asia Pacific, General Manager for Windows, Richard Francis presenting during the Philippine launch of the next generation operating system, Windows 7.

The local PC industry gave a grand welcome to Microsoft Windows 7 for making work easier, more efficient and productive.

“For 3 years, Microsoft and Lenovo engineers have worked together to jointly create a PC experience that is better, faster, more stable and more secure. This has been an unparalled effort to integrate hardware and software from the ground up,” says Lenovo Philippines Country General Manager Vicky Agorilla.

“HP PCs with Windows 7 helps you be more productive,” HP Country General Manager, Personal Systems Group, Bernadette L. Nacario agreed. “It’s easier to use so you can get more done. A new HP desktop can consume 55 per cent less energy and compared to an older laptop with Widows XP, a new HP laptop with Windows 7 can deliver 68 per cent increase in performance power.”

Asus, the trendsetter of mobile internet computing technology with its EeePC notebooks, maintained that Windows 7 makes their machines easier to work, easier to learn and easier to play with, according to Country Marketing Manager Jason S. Teh.

For its part, Acer sees the Windows 7 partnership as empowering Filipino consumers and simplifying PC use. In the same way, “Dell and Windows 7 are a perfect match,” stressed Dell Philippines Consumer Director Jerry Lacson. “Windows 7 is fast, simple and reliable, a perfect solution to everyone’s appetite to get connected.”

“As one of the Filipino hardware brands, we think Windows 7 with our machines provides the best value to our customers,” put in Xitrix Marketing Manager Jim Steniel Gawson. “It’s one of the most user-friendly operating systems in the world.”

Windows 7 became available in the local market since last month, November 7. “It’s the result of the feedback we got from customers, built with the help of billions of Windows users around the world,” declared Richard Francis, General Manager for Windows Microsoft Asia Pacific. “Over the past few months since we released the beta version, we’ve been getting good feedback from the Filipino community.”

Globally, IDC research revealed that over 7 million people, 19 percent of the world’s IT work force, will be using Windows 7 by next year. By Microsoft’s own estimates, the world currently uses more than 1 billion PCs and over 90 percent of them is running a version of Windows. In all, at least 250 million PCs now in use are ready to run Widows 7.

“This gives Microsoft a target of at least 250 million PCs in the installed base for PC OS upgrade -- a number which Microsoft has never seen before,” according to Frost & Sullivan’s Martin Guillard in his paper, “Windows 7 Will Change the PC Industry Forever.”

Microsoft broke tradition with Windows 7, creating a product driven more by customer demand than by technical expertise. Traditionally, since the PC was invented, a new version of the PC OS required a little more resources to run than the previous version.

The follow-on from Windows 7 will be due by late 2012. “It will take less than 2 years from then for a new PC industry to take shape if the 2012 release was relatively easy on hardware resources like Windows 7,” Guillard elaborated. “The global PC market is showing signs of stress under the current condition and if Windows 7 stops or slows a recovery in the PC hardware industry in any way, then major change is inevitable.”