Win 7 RTM and other hits from WPC

Bill Veghte may be moving on from his Windows leadership role, but he was in New Orleans with a vengeance Monday morning, promising Windows RTM for this month as planned and reiterating the new desktop OS’s ability to drive partner services dough, particularly in deployment planning.

Microsoft research shows 59% of enterprise users expect to move to Windows 7 soon. The software resale money may not be there full force since a large number of enterprises already have rights to the desktop OS upgrade.

Other fun Win 7 facts: IDC estimates Windows 7 shipments by 2010 at about 177 million units and that it will drive $320  billion in associated hardware, software and services for SMBs and enterprises.

Microsoft estimates there are 246 million “Windows 7 capable” machines in the field.

The company will offer 15% to 35% volume license discounts for Win 7 up till September

Judging by crowd reaction, Microsoft’s decision to give partners 250 freebie seats of Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) was big as announced by  worldwide channels boss Allison Watson. Also expanded Win 7 use for  Gold and Certified partners so one license covers work and home PCs.

Other hot spots: Licensed Office 2010 users will have rights to the company’s promised Web Office applications as well.

As for the aforementioned crowd: Watson claimed 9,000 people–which would be huge news if true. Later on, another VP mentioned 6,000 which is getting closer to reality. Unclear how many are MSFT employees, but probably a large number.