Microsoft have something to be happy about – the company saw a 60% rise in profits in the last quarter of 2009 as the PC market seemingly picked up. The company, whose earnings grew to $6.7 billion released Windows 7 on October 22nd last year.

I wonder if part of the lull that happened earlier in 2009 was at least in part caused by people holding off buying a new PC to make sure they didn’t get stuck with Vista for the next few years Most of the people buying a PC in the third quarter would also have been entitled to a free Vista to Windows 7 upgrade. This would have meant the machine being pre-installed with Vista and needing to re-install once Windows 7 was launched. This would undoubtedly put some users off.

The financial aspects is not the only thing that Microsoft have to celebrate.  The Windows 7 launch itself seems to have gone well. Many of the self-styled Vista-bashers are happy again and the product itself works like a dream.

Photo: Techedlive via Flickr