Leveraging the work of industry analysts, academic research, key industry participants, and through discussions with customers, Microsoft has developed a model to examine the phases associated with the PC lifecycle.

This model identifies seven phases across the PC lifecycle: planning, purchasing, deployment, operation, support, upgrade, and retirement. Within each phase, specific activities are defined to provide a more granular breakdown. For each phase and for the activities within, Microsoft estimated the annual cost per PC as one measure of the impact that each step has on the enterprise.

This white paper walk through the phases of the PC lifecycle model sequentially, examining the activities within each, as well as related costs.