Microsoft officially launched Windows 7 operating system in China on October 23, 2009. This is a product that Microsoft really wants to make a big splash on the market and help the company stave off competition from Apple. So let’s do a quick check on consumers’ reaction and their feedback on the Internet.

1. Overall Attention

Baidu Index indicated that both consumer attention and media attention of Windows 7 increased significantly with the product launch and reached a peak on October 23. After then, media attention dropped immediately while consumer attention still kept in a high level.

2. Geograhpy

Baidu Index showed Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou were the top three cities where consumers search Windows 7 most. Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Chongqing were the followings.

3. Demography

Among the people who had search Windows 7:

- gender: 88.86% were male, while only 11.14% were female;
- age: teenage and young adult were the major population;
- profession: IT professionals and academicians/students dominated, follow by telecom/network professionals, media/entertainment professionals, and finance/property professionals;
- education: high school students and people who hold a bachelors degree or higher were the most.

4. Hot search keywords

The top ten Windows 7 related search keywords in October are:

1. Windows 7 download
2. Windows 7 final version
3. Windows 7 Ultimate
4. activate Windows 7
5. Windows 7 activation
6. the download of Windows 7 operation system
7. Windows 7 theme
8. Windows7 Master (a Chinese Win7 system optimization software)
9. home of Windows 7 (a Chinese Win7 forum – iwindows7.com)
10. the price of Windows 7

The top ten increased search keywords with the launch of Windows 7 are:

1. Windows 7 Ultimate
2. Windows 7 final version
3. Windows 7 oem version
4. the launch of Windows 7
5. the price of Windows 7
6. Windows 7 download
7. Windows 7 7600 activation
8. Windows 7 msdn
9. Windows 7 installation
10. Windows 7 activation

The results indicate that how to get a pirated Windows 7 is Chinese consumers’ biggest concern.

5. Hot online buzz

Windows 7 online discussion increased considerably with the launch, according to the data from Qihoo BBS & Blog search. The top three Chinese Windows 7 forums PCBETA.com, iWindows7.com, and Win7c.com generated 25,000, 2,400, and 2,550 average daily posts respectively.

Just similar as the popular search objectives, the hottest Windows 7 buzz angles were about where to download a pirated copy of Windows 7 (esp. the ultimate version), what should be paid attention during the installation, and how to active the pirated Windows 7 successfully via different methods (e.g. crack software, OEM key).

Actually, copies of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system were already available in the market a week before its official launch, which cost 10-20 yuan ($1.5-3). If you even want to save such little money, various versions of copies (from home to ultimate, from Chinese to English) are free to download through Internet. You can continue to read Reuters’ special coverage “Software pirates hijack Windows 7 China debut” to get more info about this situation.