OS X Yosemite Beta Usage Beats Mavericks' Pace by 4x as New Features and Look Draw Testers

Apple announced OS X Yosemite last month during its worldwide developers conference and released the first beta version of the operating system to developers at the same time. According to web analytics firm Chitika, developer interest in Yosemite is high with an early adoption rate that is significantly greater than its predecessor OS X Mavericks and still growing.

Overall, the data point to a promising future for OS X Yosemite. In the short term, we expect the operating system’s usage share to grow in the wake of the release of the third Developer Preview edition on July 7, 2014. Additionally, with the increased level of developer activity thus far, along with the success of the similarly no cost OS X Mavericks, it’s very probable that OS X Yosemite adoption will outpace that of any other previous Mac desktop OS when it is released publicly later this year.

Chitika measured Mac OS X ad impressions from users in the U.S. and Canada between June 2 and July 2, 2014. Adoption of OS X Yosemite rose quickly after release, climbing to 0.15% of total U.S. and Canadian Mac OS X Web traffic in just a few days. In comparison, OS X Mavericks last year took about 30 days to reach only 0.05% of measured web traffic.

chitika-yosemite
Chitika attributes this higher adoption to curiosity about new features of OS X, especially those collaborative options that tie into iOS. Along with OS X Yosemite, Apple introduced iOS 8 with new continuity features that improve the cross-platform integration of iOS 8 with OS X Yosemite. Most notable is Handoff, which allows users to start a task on one iCloud-enabled device and easily transfer that task to another nearby device without losing changes.

Related Forum: OS X Yosemite

Popular Stories

top stories 2025 12 20

Top Stories: iOS 26.3 Beta, Major Apple Leaks, and More

Saturday December 20, 2025 6:00 am PST by
You'd think things would be slowing down heading into the holidays, but this week saw a whirlwind of Apple leaks and rumors while Apple started its next cycle of betas following last week's release of iOS 26.2 and related updates. This week also saw the release of a new Apple Music integration with ChatGPT, so read on below for all the details on this week's biggest stories! Top Stories i...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

iPhone 18 Pro Features Leaked in New Report, Including Under-Screen Face ID

Tuesday December 16, 2025 8:44 am PST by
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu. As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
ios 18 security update

Don't Want to Upgrade to iOS 26? Here's How to Stay on iOS 18 [Update: Now Unavailable]

Friday December 19, 2025 10:37 am PST by
Since the beginning of December, Apple has been pushing iPhone users who opted to stay on iOS 18 to install iOS 26 instead. Apple started by making the iOS 18 upgrades less visible, and has now transitioned to making new iOS 18 updates unavailable on any device capable of running iOS 26. If you have an iPhone 11 or later, Apple is no longer offering new versions of iOS 18, even though there...
airpods pro 3 new blue

AirPods Pro 3's Static and Noise Issues Haven't Been Resolved

Thursday December 18, 2025 3:44 pm PST by
Since the AirPods Pro 3 launched, there have been complaints from users who have noticed a static-like sound or a crackling issue when using the earbuds, particularly when Active Noise Cancellation is on but no media is playing. Users have also run into strange high-pitched whistling sounds that happen intermittently. We shared the issues back in late October, and despite two subsequent...
apple music chatgpt

ChatGPT's Apple Music Integration Is Now Live

Wednesday December 17, 2025 3:50 pm PST by
There's now a dedicated Apple Music app for ChatGPT, which allows ChatGPT to make music recommendations and build playlists. Apple Music can be added to ChatGPT through the Settings section in the Mac app, website, or iOS app. Apple Music is listed under the apps option, and connecting to it requires signing in with your Apple Account for authorization purposes. ChatGPT can be used to...
samsung exynos 2600 2nm%402x

Samsung Announces World's First 2nm Mobile Chip Ahead of Apple

Friday December 19, 2025 3:59 am PST by
Samsung has officially unveiled the Exynos 2600, the world's first 2 nanometer mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC), built on the company's Gate-All-Around (GAA) process. The 10-core ARM-based design aims to deliver improved performance and efficiency for flagship devices like the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The chip uses Arm's latest cores and supports new instructions for improved CPU speed and...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple's 2026 and 2027 Product Roadmap: Foldable iPhone, iPhone 18 Pro, M5 Macs, and More

Tuesday December 16, 2025 4:42 pm PST by
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond. We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
iOS 26 Maps Glass

Apple Quietly Discontinued Flyover City Tours in Apple Maps

Thursday December 18, 2025 1:31 pm PST by
Apple Maps no longer offers a Flyover feature that provides users with automated tours of notable landmarks in major cities. The Flyover option appears to have been nixed around when iOS 26 launched, but its removal went largely unnoticed. Flyover city tours were introduced in 2014 with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, using Flyover imagery to generate an aerial tour. Most cities with Flyover...

Top Rated Comments

Branskins Avatar
150 months ago
iOS-only developers also have access to Yosemite Developer Previews this year. That could account for the large increase.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cougarcat Avatar
150 months ago
or maybe it has everything to do with allowing a limited public beta that increased the numbers significantly?

The public beta isn't out yet.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Simplicated Avatar
150 months ago
That must mean that there are 4x as many Mac developers as last year! :p
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xVeinx Avatar
150 months ago
Except the limited public beta isn't public yet ;)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
proline Avatar
150 months ago
Didn't know Mavericks did all that. Thanks for letting me know, so snidely even!
Of course you knew all that. You, like all reasonable people, did your homework read the features (http://www.apple.com/osx/advanced-technologies/) and the review (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/) before making an informed decision that power and performance just aren't a good fit for you. You've been thrilled with the result- an entire year of weaker than necessary performance and battery life, just as one would expect.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
proline Avatar
150 months ago
My four-year old air slowed to a snail's pace with Mountain Lion. Too scared to drop a new OS on it. Guess I'll wait until I upgrade.
LOL. You're having performance issues, so you do what any reasonable person would do- refuse to install a free incremental update to Mountain Lion, called Mavericks, that focuses on performance and battery life issues. One proven in multiple third party tests to make even ancient Macs use dramatically less RAM and have longer battery life. One designed to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible to get your CPU back to low power mode ASAP. Makes sense.

That's what I love about MR- it's where logic goes to die.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)