OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Tops Lion as Most Popular Mac Operating System

According to Web analytics firm Net Applications (via Computerworld) Apple's OS X Mountain Lion is now the most popular version of OS X, just five months after its July 2012 release.

During December, 32% of all Macs that went online were running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Usage of Lion, the previous iteration of OS X, dropped from 30% to 28%.

os x mountain lion share dec12
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, first introduced in 2009, remains widely used despite its age. As of December 31, it still represented 29% of Mac Internet usage. Snow Leopard remains for sale on the online Apple Store and has been lauded for its stability.

Easily accessible and reasonably priced upgrades have always enticed Apple users to embrace operating system updates. Apple famously boasted about selling a million copies of OS X 10.7 Lion in its first day of availability, and Mountain Lion also saw rapid adoption numbers.

osxupgrades
Net Applications collects its data by tracking browser usage of 160 million monthly visitors from around the world on approximately 40,000 websites, offering a picture of the active user base of browsers and platforms at any moment.

Popular Stories

space black mbp

Apple Potentially Facing Worst Leak Since iPhone 4 Was Left in a Bar

Monday October 7, 2024 3:03 pm PDT by
Alleged photos and videos of an unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip continue to surface on social media, in what could be the worst product leak for Apple since an employee accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype at a bar in California in 2010. The latest video of what could be a next-generation MacBook Pro was shared on YouTube Shorts today by Russian channel Romancev768, just...
Alleged M4 MacBook Pro Leak Video

Alleged M4 MacBook Pro Unboxing Video Reveals These Four Upgrades

Sunday October 6, 2024 6:10 pm PDT by
An alleged unboxing video for an unannounced 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip was uploaded to YouTube today by Russian channel Wylsacom. The video was later linked to on social media platform X by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It is possible that this is the same MacBook Pro box shown in photos that were shared by leaker ShrimpApplePro in late September, as he claimed that this MacBook Pro...
M4 Real Feature Red

Gurman: Apple to Launch First M4 Macs and Potentially iPad Mini 7 on November 1

Sunday October 6, 2024 6:40 am PDT by
Apple will announce several new M4 Mac models around the end of October, with the company planning to launch at least some of them as soon as Friday, November 1, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that Apple will launch a new M4 version of its low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, as well as higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models...
watchos 11 vitals

Apple Watch Users Report Vitals App Detecting Illness Before Symptoms Appear

Monday October 7, 2024 5:34 am PDT by
Apple's new Vitals app for watchOS 11 appears to be impressing some users with its ability to detect potential illness days before symptoms manifest, according to recent reports on Reddit. The Apple Watch app, which analyzes key health metrics measured during sleep over the last seven days, appears to be providing early warnings of impending sickness for at least some Apple Watch wearers...
Generic iOS 18

Apple Plans to Release iOS 18.1 With Apple Intelligence on October 28

Sunday October 6, 2024 6:18 am PDT by
Apple intends to launch iOS 18.1 with the first set of much-anticipated Apple Intelligence features on October 28, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says the release date is arriving this month later than initially expected, as Apple is reportedly taking extra time to ensure a smooth rollout and prepare its AI cloud...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.1 Beta 6

Monday October 7, 2024 4:27 pm PDT by
We're nearing the end of the iOS 18.1 beta testing process, but Apple is continuing to make tweaks to refine built-in features ahead of when the software launches. With testing winding down, there are fewer new additions, but Apple has made changes worth noting. The new beta is available for both developers and public beta testers. Control Center In the Control Center, Apple has added new...
iPad mini review thumb

iPad Mini 7 Coming Next Month: What to Expect

Tuesday October 8, 2024 6:16 am PDT by
Rumors strongly suggest Apple will release the seventh-generation iPad mini in November, nearly three years after the last refresh. Here's a roundup of what we're expecting from the next version of Apple's small form factor tablet, based on the latest rumors and reports. Design and Display The new iPad mini is likely to retain its compact 8.3-inch display and overall design introduced with...

Top Rated Comments

Asclepio Avatar
154 months ago
snow leopard still the best
Score: 62 Votes (Like | Disagree)
markfc Avatar
154 months ago
Snow Leopard is still high because apple are dicks for dropping core duo support...
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FSMBP Avatar
154 months ago
Not a fan of this yearly desktop OS update. Devs are taking long to update their apps for the latest OS; by the time they do update, Apple announces a beta of the next version of OS X. (I'm not blaming Devs - I can't imagine them wanting to support multiple OSes within such a short timeframe)

I'm not saying pull a oldschool Microsoft and go 5 years between releases, but a 18-24 month schedule seems easier on consumers and Devs.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tigres Avatar
154 months ago
Wonder how many Lion users would have stuck with Snow Leopard if it had iCloud support.

Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlieegan3 Avatar
154 months ago
Hang in there olde snow leopard.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maxwelltech Avatar
154 months ago
LOL Lion is now less popular than Snow Leopard despite being newer. Kind of like the relationship between Windows Vista and XP.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)