OS X Mountain Lion Downloaded 3 Million Times in Four Days

[v654321]

Downloaded and installed it yesterday. Most underwhelming upgrade ever, even despite the small financial footprint.

I can't imagine one year of development went into this. I really can't.

 

[danckwerts]

Impressive

The noticeable thing with this thread is how few bugs and incompatibilities are mentioned. There were so many more problems with Lion. I've had not a single problem on either my mid-2011 Macbook Air or my mid-2007 iMac (just recent enough!). Really impressive.

I'm not sure if Dictate would save me much time but I'm amazed with how accurate it is.

 

[cvaldes]

I like the price.

It's even better if you spend $16 out of pocket, instead of $20.

 

[D.T.]

Upgraded our two machines this weekend:

2010 MBP 13" (late)
2.4GHz C2D
6GB RAM
Running Snow Lep (from the original OOTB factory install)
Installed from a USB stick (16GB, partitioned to bootable 8GB, flashed from the original source download)

15-20 minutes initial install setup (from USB), ~30 for install, ~10 minutes final app conversions (mail, calendar, etc.)

2011 MBP 15" (mid), running Lion
2.3 i7 quad
16GB RAM
Running Lion (from a clean install)
Installed directly from download (via the App Store)

3-4 minutes initial setup (from HDD), otherwise about the same

Both went flawless, both are running smoother,network/web access is notably faster. Notifications look great, email, cal, tasks, etc., all synced up across devices, AirPlay is _very_ slick from my machine (the '10 machine doesn't support it).

My machine did require me to update my Parallels from V6 to V7, though I might wind up moving to VBox (my V7 is just a trial for now).

I confirmed a TM backup and a full image backup as well before proceeding

[edit]

Had a couple of additional notes:

Herald was a plugin for Mail, not compatible with 10.8 mail, +but+ nicely replaced by the new notification system.

Little Snitch was also flagged as incompatible (and disabled), LS3 is being previewed, should be out soon (looks slick, using the notification system too).

I completed ALL updates on the two machines before moving to the ML update. That included an EFI update, for the 15" the 10.7.4 and patch, Java, etc.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Another statistic to use to pretend that it is more popular than Windows.

 

[KPOM]

You are delusional if you really think that.

Windows 8 will do double that in half the time.

In sheer numbers, yes it will be installed a bunch of times. However, given that the Mac is about 4% of the global market, OS X 10.8's initial sales are impressive.

That said, it's interesting that they disclosed "downloads" vs. sales. I wonder how many actual sales there were. Consider the following:

• The up-to-date program
• One Mountain Lion purchase can be downloaded onto multiple Macs

It's a little bit like the "shipped vs. sold," but given that they are selling it for $20, my guess is that Apple is more concerned about the uptake than the actual revenue (hence the reason why they are disclosing downloads).

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Downloaded and installed it yesterday. Most underwhelming upgrade ever, even despite the small financial footprint.

I can't imagine one year of development went into this. I really can't.

Consider it "Lion Fixed." It isn't supposed to be revolutionary. It's an evolution of Lion. For $20, it was a lot cheaper than Windows 7, which was "Vista Fixed."

It took 3 years for Microsoft to come up with Windows 7, and another 3 for Windows 8. Heck, it took 6 years for Microsoft to develop Vista. Anyway, it isn't as if it took a big team a year to develop Mountain Lion. I'm guessing it was a pretty small team.

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I'm not sure if Dictate would save me much time but I'm amazed with how accurate it is.

It's run by Nuance. Consider it just another little thing that Macs include that are extras on Windows. Unfortunately, it requires an Internet connection to work, since it is processed on Apple's server, but that's the Cloud, I guess.

 

[blackburn]

Way faster than lion. And now with windows 8 turning computers into toys no wonder that mt lion is selling so well

 

[wickedking94]

Windows 8 will do double that in half the time.

Do you really think that? It will never happen, given that Microsoft will still distribute it via DVD, and it will still probably cost over 100$. Its a big consideration.

Apple's method of download distribution and low price point make it a far easier purchase to justify, especially for someone on a budget.

 

[KdParker]

I won't upgrade my laptop as i hate the metro interface.

I see a touch screen is just nice on tablets only as i dont like getting a tired arm just by touching a screen.

I hated the metro interface too, until I got used to it. Then is started to make since. Are you running windows8 now?

 

[AidenShaw]

easily

Windows 8 will do double that in half the time.

Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview saw more than one million downloads during the first day of its release, the Building Windows 8 team said via Twitter late Thursday.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/251153/windows_8_consumer_preview_hits_1_million_downloads.html

 

[KnightWRX]

Do you really think that? It will never happen, given that Microsoft will still distribute it via DVD, and it will still probably cost over 100$. Its a big consideration.

Apple's method of download distribution and low price point make it a far easier purchase to justify, especially for someone on a budget.

One point to note : Microsoft's installed based of users dwarfs Apple's. As such, they have a much larger pool of users that will be wanting/waiting to upgrade in the first few days.

It wouldn't surprise me that Windows 8 adoption numbers in absolute units will be higher than 3 million in 4 days, why people want to deny that I'm not sure. It would be interesting to get the numbers as percentages of the installed based though.

 

[andrebismara]

It's either a great triumph for Mountain Lion… Or an admission that nobody was particularly attached to Lion.

Lion was not THAT bad, actually... Calling it Apple's own Windows Vista is a bit unfair IMO. What happens is 19.99 is too cheap not to try, and Apple users usually adopt things from the company faster than customers from other tech companies. It's simple as that.

 

[KnightWRX]

Way faster than lion.

How is 3M in 4 days way faster than 1M in 1 day exactly ?

 

[andrebismara]

How is 3M in 4 days way faster than 1M in 1 day exactly ?

As far as I know there are 6 million "copies" of OS X Lion "shipped". If Apple was able to pull 4M in 4 days with ML, it may as well surpass the 6M mark of Lion. Let's also not forget Lion was released one year ago.

 

[KdParker]

Do you really think that? It will never happen, given that Microsoft will still distribute it via DVD, and it will still probably cost over 100$. Its a big consideration.

Apple's method of download distribution and low price point make it a far easier purchase to justify, especially for someone on a budget.

While I don't what to sound like the defender of MS, but I haven't used a disk to load/update windows since xp.

 

[KnightWRX]

As far as I know there are 6 million "copies" of OS X Lion "shipped". If Apple was able to pull 4M in 4 days with ML, it may as well surpass the 6M mark of Lion. Let's also not forget Lion was released one year ago.

Wait, so you're saying that after a launch of 1M in the first day, Apple only managed 5M extra copies in the 364 days that followed ?

Just newly purchased Macs trump those figures.

 

[wickedking94]

And heres how I look at it:

Vista was pretty bad. Even with service packs it was still glitchy and didn't make very good use of hardware.

Lion also wasn't as good as we expected, but Vista was a 150$ upgrade, Lion was 30$. Vista had 6 years of development, Lion had 2.

Now we move on to the "fix" OS's. I'll admit Windows 7 is a massive improvement over vista. Its faster and much more stable. But again its a 150$ upgrade, and what user-end features did it add? The only visible change i noticed was a slight change to the taskbar. With Mountain Lion, all or most of lions problems have been fixed on an INITIAL release, with few or no bugs of its own. And unlike 7, its a mere 20$ and provides many new user-end features as well as a minor visual upgrade (the dock). I can easily afford a 20$ upgrade and got it the day it came out. My mother on the other hand spend months deciding if windows 7 would be worth it.

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While I don't what to sound like the defender of MS, but I haven't used a disk to load/update windows since xp.

Okay, but still the price has got to drop. I can easily spend 20$ on an OS upgrade but i would have to find serious justification to spend 150$ on an upgrade.

 

[andrebismara]

Wait, so you're saying that after a launch of 1M in the first day, Apple only managed 5M extra copies in the 364 days that followed ?

Just newly purchased Macs trump those figures.

This is the information I saw about Lion "shipments" in several websites, don't blame me. I don't know the REAL sales figures and no one apart from some selected Apple employees must know this for sure. This info must be sort of confidential anyway.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Downloaded and installed it yesterday. Most underwhelming upgrade ever, even despite the small financial footprint.

I can't imagine one year of development went into this. I really can't.

Really? Did you imagine anything? Saying something is underwhelming™ doesn't take much imagination at all considering you've not mentioned any substantive features that are missing.

 

[andrebismara]

Wait, so you're saying that after a launch of 1M in the first day, Apple only managed 5M extra copies in the 364 days that followed ?

Just newly purchased Macs trump those figures.

Apart from all that, I guess Apple considers the downloads/sales numbers, instead of Mac sales figures, since the OS comes already pre-installed and this is not considered a download since it's there already. My MacBook Pro came with Lion installed, so it's probably out of this 6M figure statistic.

 

[KnightWRX]

And heres how I look at it:

Vista was pretty bad. Even with service packs it was still glitchy and didn't make very good use of hardware.

Lion also wasn't as good as we expected, but Vista was a 150$ upgrade, Lion was 30$. Vista had 6 years of development, Lion had 2.

And here's how to really look at it :

- Prior to Vista shipping, Microsoft made a program where hardware makers certified their hardware as "Vista Capable" or "Vista Ready". The thing was this, the "Vista Capable" label got applied to a bunch of computers unable to run the Aero interface. A lot of buyers of these computers claim they got tricked and weren't getting the full Vista experience :

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Vista-Capable-lawsuit-against-Microsoft-now-a-1265319.php

That was "Vista". Apple hasn't had a Vista. They've never made "OS X Lion Capable" claims about hardware that wasn't capable.

Then there was the whole crapshoot of a brand new driver architecture in Vista that made a lot of peripherals stop working, which didn't help. All in all, you really can't compare Vista to any OS X version, it wasn't about a few UI tidbits people didn't like which were completely optional.

 

[DougB541]

yeahh...if a non-marketed, non final software consumer preview did 1 million in one day...i'm sure full retail version will do more than 4 million.

 

[Winni]

You are delusional if you really think that.

The Windows 8 Release Preview already has a larger user base than that... Just get over it.

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When you consider computers with Windows installed out numbers those with Mac OS installed by a factor of about 10 to one, definitely possible.

In terms of percentage of users upgrading, that's tougher. Especially considering Windows will cost what, over $100 while ML is only $19.99? Plus, hasn't Windows 8 been getting some bad reviews due to its new Metro interface?

Windows 8 will cost 15 bucks for people who have been buying computers with Win 7 in the last few months and it will cost less than 40 bucks for everybody else. But unlike Mountain Lion, it is not just a service pack but a major upgrade.

 

[wickedking94]

And here's how to really look at it :

- Prior to Vista shipping, Microsoft made a program where hardware makers certified their hardware as "Vista Capable" or "Vista Ready". The thing was this, the "Vista Capable" label got applied to a bunch of computers unable to run the Aero interface. A lot of buyers of these computers claim they got tricked and weren't getting the full Vista experience :

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Vista-Capable-lawsuit-against-Microsoft-now-a-1265319.php

That was "Vista". Apple hasn't had a Vista. They've never made "OS X Lion Capable" claims about hardware that wasn't capable.

Then there was the whole crapshoot of a brand new driver architecture in Vista that made a lot of peripherals stop working, which didn't help. All in all, you really can't compare Vista to any OS X version, it wasn't about a few UI tidbits people didn't like which were completely optional.

Thats a valid point. My point really is though, that Windows 7 was to fix problems with Windows Vista, and it was expensive. Minor upgrades like 7 should have a lower price than the overhaul updates like vista.

 

[naphatkrit]

I'm guessing the first-day count wasn't too impressive compared to Lion's, which is why it wasn't announced.