With the channel hoping that Windows 7 will have the sort of impact on sales that major launches of the past used to have the initial signs from e-tailers promoting pre-orders will be encouraging.

Amazon is reporting that sales of the next major operating systems from Microsoft, which launches in October, sold more in 8 hours than Vista did in its entire 17 week pre-order period. The e-tailer is allowed to run pre-order promotions until early next month.

The early indications of consumer interest would appear to support IDC sales forecasts for Windows 7, which were revealed earlier this week.

The analyst house predicted that globally the expectations are for shipments of 177 million units of Windows 7 by the end of next year, with 1% of global IT spending going towards the OS.

Between the launch in October and the end of next year the European channels are expected to sell more than $70bn in products and services connected with Windows 7, according to IDC.

"The advent of Windows 7 will bring related and cascading economic benefits, from new employment to increased revenues and investments made in local country economies," said IDC.

"In this case, less than 1% of global IT spending will drive nearly 20% of global IT employment and account for a significant portion of the new jobs created in the IT industry in late 2009 and 2010," said the analyst house in its research white paper.

Source: Microscope