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Topic: Apple

Apple: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion hits 3 million downloads

Summary: In just four days, Apple claims its latest operating system release -- OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion -- is its most successful OS X release to date.

Zack Whittaker

By for Between the Lines |

Apple said today that its latest operating system, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, has reached the 3 million downloads milestone, making it the most successful desktop release in the company's history.

In less than a week, including one weekend, Mountain Lion rocketed to the top of the Mac App Store charts and became the most popular software in its online marketplace. 

Costing only $19.99 in the U.S., with Twitter integration (Facebook integration comes later this year) and iCloud support, the operating system comes with a total of 200 brand new features. The release remains one of the many highly anticipated releases of the year out of the Cupertino-based technology giant. 

However, if you're clocking up 3 million multiplied by $19.99, no need. The Mac App Store allows users to download and install copies onto multiple machines. Many were able to download the software for free as those who bought a Mac in the last month received a free copy of the operating system.

Also see: ZDNet: Apple releases OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: What you need to know | Apple's Q3 earnings: The numbers to know | CNET Mountain Lion review | Apple's enterprise mojo: Education shines | Apple's Q3 disappoints; iPhone shipments light | CNET: A miss: Apple sells 26 million iPhones in third quarter 

The release is resonant of the iPhone 4S launch, pushed out to the world last October, Apple sold more than four million smartphones in the first weekend alone; not limited to U.S. sales. 

While the launch came only a day before Apple's Q3 earnings, the company failed to perform pushed along by a smartphone slowdown in anticipation of the upcoming iPhone 5, thought to be on store shelves by October in time for the holiday season sales rush.

Apple sold 4 million Macs in the third-quarter ending in June, along with 6.8 million iPods. It also sold 26 million iPhones, but fell short on analysts' expectations. Apple also sold 17 million iPads during the quarter, up from 84 percent a year before. 

Updated at 4:50 p.m. BST with correct Macs sold figure for Q4.

Topics: Apple, Operating Systems

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24 comments
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  • Correction

    Apple sold 4+ million Macs in the last quarter not 3.
    Majid M. Alamodi
    Reply 1 Vote

    • Fixed -- thanks!

      Thanks for the message.
      zwhittaker
      Reply 1 Vote

  • Eclipsed by Windows 7

    I don't recall headlines like this about Windows 7 -- which is the fastest-selling OS in history.

    Long ago Windows 7 had already sold more copies than every Mac, iOS device and Android device combined:
    http://gizmodo.com/5878036/microsoft-sells-more-windows-7-than-every-mac-ios-and-android-device-combined

    And Windows 7 sales were held back by the success and longevity of Windows XP is still the most popular OS!
    Tim Acheson
    Reply 4 Votes

    • Here's the difference

      The vast majority of Windows 7 sales occurred as the result of a PC sale. If Windows 7 sold 3 million copies off of store shelves in a weekend, it would make corresponding headlines. If Windows 8 sells 3 million copies off store shelves in a weekend, it will make corresponding headlines. But the hard, cold reality is: It won't. However, in a few months, PC sales with Windows 8 PRE-INSTALLED will surpass Mountain Lion sales INDEPENDENT of any hardware purchase.

      It really isn't that hard to understand.
      baggins_z
      Reply 4 Votes

      • But Apple didn't sell 3 million copies

        Forget "shipped vs sold", this is "sold vs downloaded". For all we know, Apple made $19.99 revenue from those 3 million downloads.

        "The Mac App Store allows users to download and install copies onto multiple machines. Many were able to download the software for free"

        I also heard that many people had to download this 2, 3, even 5 times before it finally installed.

        Also, if we were doing a real Apples to apples comparison, you would be comparing Mountain Lion downloads to Windows service pack downloads since Mountain Lion is just a service pack. It is also far cheaper than any Windows upgrade. Ford sells a lot more $15,000 cars than BMW sells $100,000 cars. I'd rather have the $100,000 BMW (Windows) than the $15,000 Ford (OS X).

        It really isn't that hard to understand.

        I'd also like to know where you got your figures for how many Windows upgrades were purchased. You clearly have those figures or you wouldn't be stating as fact that MS's Windows upgrade sales were lower than Apple's OS X upgrade sales.
        toddbottom3
        Reply 3 Votes

        • Did you get your handicapped parking pass toddbottom3???

          Congratulations!!! It finally happened, you have gone far beyond butt-hurt and are now oficially butt-crippled. I don't know that your fat a$$ qualifies for dissability benefits, but it should qualify you park with the rest of the fatties and old people. On the bright side, you now have a valid excuse for all those handicapped faces you constantly make.
          i8thecat4
          Reply 2 Votes

          • It's actually pretty funny

            Reading all his posts and seeing how much even the smallest positive mention of Apple gets his panties in a wad. He should actually be used to show depressed people how good their lives actually are.
            non-biased
            Reply Vote

      • Wait a second...

        How many people have Windows 7 Service Pack 1 installed... and got that for free?

        Just like everything else Apple does, they release essentially DLCs once a year that goes on top of the same exact shell for the last several years... have we passed a decade yet?
        ikissfutebol
        Reply 1 Vote

      • Try comparing apples to apples...

        Nobody doubts that, Windows does come preloaded with most PCs sold, and thereby, the numbers are automatically skewed in Microsoft's favor.

        But, when somebody purchases an Apple computer, doesn't a corresponding Apple OS come already installed in that machine? If Apple sells 17 million Macs in a quarter, "chances" are that, there are 17 million of Apple's OS being "sold" with those machines. Sure, I know that, a Mac can't be sold separately without the OS, but, you're the one not considering the equation where, PCs come with Windows, and Macs come with OSX.

        If Macs were sold separately from the OS, and people could install a different OS without "disturbing" Apple's warranty rules, how many people do you think would opt for Windows instead of OSX (Mountain Lion or whatever)?
        adornoe
        Reply Vote

        • A very small percentage

          You might like to believe that most Mac owners also run Windows on there system but that's not the case. The majority of people purchase Macs because they prefer OSX while some do purchase simply because they prefer Apple's hardware offerings. I would be shocked if the percentage of purchased say over the last year to only run Windows was even close 0.1% of total sales.
          non-biased
          Reply Vote

      • count sales evenly on both platforms!

        @baggins
        Anything apple that sells, apple fanboys count that, including iphones, ipads, imacs. The cold harsh reality is that no matter what toys apple tries to sell, even if it sells Apple stuffed steve jobs dolls, IT LOST when it comes to desktop sales. And nothing is going to change that. It doesn't matter if the copy was sold in a box on a shelf, on CD, as a digital download, or as a full computer system (THE SAME AS APPLE SELLS THEIR MACS!), no matter how you slice it Microsoft eclipsed them. If you want to gloat about ipad2 sales, great. If you want to talk about how many iphones sold, wonderful. But pretending like Microsoft never wins one, and awarded a phoney victory to everything apple does in some sick love for steve jobs and the legacy of apple, is pretty pretty lame.

        Windows 7 also sold box copies if you read. They were selling 7 copies a second at the peak. That means it would only take 3.7 days to equal the amount of macs sold. But here you are only counting PC sales as if people want to buy a PC with nothing on it. People buy PC's when they see it in the store RUNNING WINDOWS. OKay? It, like the Apple Mac, IS A PACKAGE DEAL. Getting the picture? But let me guess, you don't count iMac sales, but only count osx sales from the box right? Oh, wait, I think you've just been caught, lol. Get over it. Oh wait, the fact that you guys are so credulous and delusional is the very reason you buy macs in the first place. "The round pegs in the square hole.. dream, la la, I'm taking an extra $1000 out of your wallets" lol.
        zingboing
        Reply 1 Vote

        • You need to get over yourself

          Calm down, take some deep breaths and if need be some meds.

          Nobody said anything about their being more OSlicenseses out there than Windows. Nobody said Apple has a larger market share.
          Nobody said MS doesn't dominate the PC market.

          Where did you get all that from? The latest version was downloaded over 3 million times in a matter of days, that is an impressive figure no matter how you slice it. If your info is correct that MS was selling 7 retail copies of Windows 7 a second at it's peak that is very impressive but it would still take almost 5 days to reach the 3 million of ML. Sure, not all of those were individual purchases, I downloaded once for an iMac and once for a MBP but the iMac download was after the 3 million download announcement so that doesn't change anything. We have no idea if the majority were single downloads or not.
          non-biased
          Reply Vote

  • Remember Apple fanbois, total number of licenses isn't the important figure

    Remember Apple's graph comparing Lion to Windows 7? Did they compare total number of licenses? Of course not. That would be humiliating for Apple.

    No folks, the real important number here is ultra simple: the rate at which the percentage of licensors using the new version increases. Silly things like dollar revenue don't count when comparing OS licenses. We all know that silly things like dollar revenue only count on things other than OS sales like the sales of tablets and smartphones. Sheesh, I'm surprised I need to explain this to you because it is SO simple. We also know that sales don't count unless it shows up as a line item on the end user's receipt. The money that a company gets from non-listed items for sale to end user is heavily discounted. When MS fills out their deposit slip at the bank for $6,000,000,000, they have to tell the bank how much of that came from sales that were itemized on the end user's receipt. The bank then gives them 1 cent on the dollar for that total.
    toddbottom3
    Reply 1 Vote

    • And Your problem IS??

      I do not understand your problem. 4 million downloads is alot. So the Windows Market is bigger. I think everyone on this site understands that. Do not be jeolous because of other peoples shiny new toys. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY THEM.
      davidmpaul
      Reply 3 Votes

      • You don't have the time

        to go through the list of all his problems.
        non-biased
        Reply Vote

    • Who cares how many copies of Windows are flogged to a user base that

      has no choice in what they must use. I'm sure it is a lot. What really matters is that the vast majority of Apple products sold were to people that made that decision for themselves. Every day we are seeing more and more people saying no to Windows. IT departments are being forced to change their policies as more users want to use their own non-Widows technology at work. Even you choose Apple technology.
      CowLauncher
      Reply 3 Votes

      • New rules being made up all the time

        "What really matters is that the vast majority of Apple products sold were to people that made that decision for themselves"

        Is that what really matters? So every Mac that is sold to a publishing company that forces their employees to use that Mac is a Mac that doesn't count? Anyway, it is good to know that profit isn't what really matters.

        "Every day we are seeing more and more people saying no to Windows"

        But wait a second. 20 words earlier, you stated: "a user base that has no choice in what they must use"

        Now they DO have choice?

        I've seen you Apple fanbois betray your cognitive dissonance that Windows users have no choice and they hate it which is why many Windows users are choosing something other than Windows. Usually you guys are smart enough to post those 2 ideas in different posts. Congrats, you got both of those in 1 paragraph.

        PS None of those education sales count because students and teachers aren't given a choice in what they can use.
        http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/07/24/apples_ipad_education_sales_double_outperforms_mac_2_to_1.html
        Oops.
        toddbottom3
        Reply 1 Vote

        • Ok, so this is your day job

          What a wally.
          ego.sum.stig
          Reply Vote

  • Stop saying people who use Windows have no choice...

    It is often heard that Windows sells because it comes installed on machines. If you don't like the OS, just remove it and install your favorite version of the Linux OS or whatever "Cat" Apple is on. People do install Firefox and not use IE when they get a new machine, don't they? The reality is that people who buy Apple machines still use Parallels and install Windows to get any useful work done after all.
    ssuboor
    Reply 1 Vote

    • They could do that.

      Sure, you could install Linux on whatever hardware but not OSX. What would it change though, those system sales would still count toward a license purchased.
      non-biased
      Reply Vote
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