Research director at the company George Shiffler suggested that it could be late 2010 before business users decide to update their systems with the latest Microsoft product.
As a result, he predicted that sales of PCs over the first few months of next year could be slow, since many firms will choose to synchronise their adoption of Windows 7 with the purchase of new computers.
Mr Shiffler explained: "We are expecting a modest bump in fourth-quarter consumer demand as vendors promote new Windows 7-based PCs, but the attraction will be the new PCs, not Windows 7."
The report also indicated that mobile PC shipments could achieve a 15.4 per cent rise in 2009 compared to 2008, with Gartner predicting that 162 million units will be sold.
Recent research by the firm showed that location-based services could be one of the most popular mobile applications in 2012.
