Nearly 10,000,000 Mac OS X Users!

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Over 9,000,000 official Mac OS X users have been counted so far, and Apple say they expect to surpass the psyghological 10,000,000 barrier within the next 3-4 months.



How good is this? m.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    ...and about 10,000 apps for OS X too. Granted, we know what many of those apps constitute, but I think that's pretty amazing considering how many we had for the Classic Mac OS, and plenty of those were barely apps of consequence either.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    I think the adoption rate will actually start to accelerate. I bet we hit 15 or 16 mil by next January. How many of those add-ons are new users will be the big question. Hopefully most of them. A lot of photo pros are still waiting on Rev B G5. When that lot rolls around, I bet a ton of people who are still on OS 9 will join the fray.



  • Reply 3 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Moogs

    I think the adoption rate will actually start to accelerate. I bet we hit 15 or 16 mil by next January. How many of those add-ons are new users will be the big question. Hopefully most of them. A lot of photo pros are still waiting on Rev B G5. When that lot rolls around, I bet a ton of people who are still on OS 9 will join the fray.



    Let's hope it does accelerate. If Apple's trojan horse strategy of iTunes and iPod for Windows does woo over converters to the bright side, then good for Apple.



    Let's just hope Apple don't be blatant about it and start puttin ads in iTunes that refresh every once in a while ? like the old OS 9 version of Sherlock.



    Sheesh. m.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Cool cool. Good to hit the 10 Million mark. Go Panther/Jaguar go!!! If you happen to be stuck with 10.1 or, heavens-forbid, the first release, go upgrade to Panther. You will love it. I still can't stop playing with Expose!
  • Reply 5 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Man, it crushes me to have to go to work every Monday, knowing I have to sit down at an otherwise nice workstation (Sawtooth G4 with 1GB RAM, Illustrator 10, Photoshop 7, nice Microtek scanner, 17" flat-screen display, etc.) and have to work in OS 9 all damn day.



    (we need a "crying hysterically" smiley for just such an occasion).



    I swear, coming home after work and sitting down to Panther is like breathing for the first time. I fight crashes, freezes and extension issues ALL DAY LONG. Not to mention the pure ugliness of 9 (compared to X), I can't use iChat, iTunes 4, etc. I may as well be using Windows ME.







    The idiotic modal open/save dialogs ALONE are enough to make me want to jump out a window. I never knew how much time is wasted (or how much you stumble in your flow) when you have to cancel out of these things to do anything else!



    OS X (Panther especially) is so elegant and I'm SO much faster and more efficient in it. As is, I'd imagine, most everyone.



    I've got to get these people on X. Jeez...
  • Reply 6 of 15
    so ya... why are you still on 9? aas for panther, i think it will gain more users, but it is more of a wake up call. the next os upgrade will be the one that apple will sell to windows-like numbers of people.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    the next os upgrade will be the one that apple will sell to windows-like numbers of people.



    Which is what people said about 10.3.

    And what people said about 10.2.



    \
  • Reply 8 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Just further evidence to back up my "it's always the NEXT one" mindset we share as Mac users (next keynote, next Macworld, next update, next generation chip, etc.







    Panther is the best ever. It's as good as anything has ever been. It makes 9 look like an Etch-a-Sketch (with a broken knob). Anyone not using Panther (or giving it serious consideration) needs to have some really, really compelling reason (like a $28,000 proprietary scanner or whatever that doesn't have OS X support), otherwise, they're really missing out.



    If they're just staying put because of fear or inertia, they really need to work to overcome that. I hated X immensely when I installed the Public Beta ("this ain't a Mac", "it's just stupid eye candy!", etc.). That lasted about 4 days...



    Come on, people. Get with it.







    Are you honestly going to still be using 9.1 or 9.2 in another 2 or 3 years? Apple themselves no longer even develop for it, and neither does Adobe or Microsoft. The coolest shareware and downloadable utilities and doodads are all becoming X-based these days too. At some point, you gotta grab your nuts and jump in and join the future.



    I've GOT to go to work on that co-worker of mine...
  • Reply 9 of 15
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    Which is what people said about 10.3.

    And what people said about 10.2.



    \




    Yup. And they're going to be wrong every time.



    The great bulk of OS X sales will be bundled with new Macs. The best OS X can do is look real nice for someone who's already gotten to the point where they're seriously considering buying one of these Mac things (or buying another Mac, as the case may be). 10.2 was basically there (it was the first OS X to pass the "Mom test" in my estimation - I migrated her to OS X as of 10.2.2). 10.3 is emphatically there. Subsequent updates are gravy.



    But the problem of getting people to the point where they can appreciate an operating system in the first place remains.



    I do note that the curve Steve showed was accelerating steadily. The recent leaps forward that iPod and iLife have taken should accelerate that further.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Yes. I think 2004 stands to be THE year, for several things. As cool and exciting as 2003 was, I think - for many reasons - 2004 will be even more so (20th anniversary stuff...Steve himself said they're going to mark it throughout the year, the G5 will get bumped to, ultimately, 3GHz AND will find its way to other products, iLife, the iPod, the iTMS will all look VERY attractive to consumers and potential switchers, Panther is really solid and a "real" OS (started with Jaguar, now pretty much "there"), plus I'm sure they've got some new products in the wings.



    I bet our heads will be spinning by summer! I hope so.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    Which is what people said about 10.3.

    And what people said about 10.2.



    \




    just in case i missed something: actually, is there already a "windows-like" user base to sell "windows like numbers"?



    ... still wondering ...



    best
  • Reply 12 of 15
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    Apparently a bit of a hurdle is fonts. In the 'creative industry' it is a problem as ATM is the preferred tool and it has not been made for OS X. However doesn't 10.3's Fontbook sort that out? Aren't all the fonts in that app usable in classic and in OS X?
  • Reply 13 of 15
    What's interesting to note was that Mac OS (Classic...) was a dying platform. Difficult to build on. A creaky ship. A dead end. Defections to Windows, mass hysteria in the Computing Press (Apple dying etc...) and it was unstable and technically holding back Apple and developers back.



    Mac OS 'X'?



    A growing platform. In the last year or so it's gone from a few million to almost ten million! And counting. Not bad. And there's a shed load of New PowerMac, iBook and PowerBook sales that are going to add to that number this quarter gone.



    Not to mention the iPod effect. Apple is seen as 'cool' by a younger generation. That's far more important than the dinosaurs clinging like a barnicle to their XP rock.



    Or the stores which are reaching new users and some Wintel switchers.



    X is stable and graceful. Panther is great, technologically propelling Apple ahead of M$ again (in contrast to Mac OS which had let W '95 'draw level'.)



    'X' is bringing new developers to the Mac platform. New apps... 'X' (and a G5 or two...) have brought us the first Bic Mac rated at N0.3 in the world of supercomputing.



    'X' is the bed rock for the best piece of Apple software yet. iLife '04. And which the kind of integration Windows can only dream of.



    Workstation folks are coming back to the Mac in droves. The Mac is showing growth in workstation territory again.



    In the UK market, Education is getting very excited by Apple's multimedia offerings.



    And what's really weird?



    Apple hasn't had this much good press in years.



    And the clones are back! And...they're blue!



    Consider: AOL, HP and Pepsi. All backing Apple.



    Is this Bizarro world?



    2004 could be a shell-shock of a year, it is already.



    Congratulations Apple!



    Lemon Bon Bon
  • Reply 14 of 15
    fahlmanfahlman Posts: 740member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mattyj

    Apparently a bit of a hurdle is fonts. In the 'creative industry' it is a problem as ATM is the preferred tool and it has not been made for OS X. However doesn't 10.3's Fontbook sort that out? Aren't all the fonts in that app usable in classic and in OS X?



    Adobe will never update ATM. Here's a quote from Support Knowledgebase Document 328856:

    Quote:

    Support Knowledgebase Document 328856

    Adobe has no plans to develop ATM Deluxe for Mac OS X. As an alternative for users of Mac OS X, Adobe recommends Diamondsoft Font Reserve and Extensis Suitcase products.



    BTW, Diamondsoft was purchased by Extensis, as you can tell by clicking the above links.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Hey, just a quick head's up to anyone reading this still using OS 9 and not making the migration to Panther strictly out of fear or uncertainty: I just came back from Barnes & Noble and was flipping through Scott Kelby's latest version of his Mac 9 to X switcher's guide (can't remember the exact title).



    It's written for the current OS 9 user, helping them smoothly transition to OS X. This new version, hot off the press, is updated to reflect Panther, so it's about as current as a book like this can get. The left side of a page spread shows how something was done in OS 9 (complete with screenshots) and the right side of the spread shows you how to do the same thing in OS X/Panther (setting up a printer, making aliases, changing the desktop, etc.).



    Basically, all those little things people want/need to know to get up and running ASAP. It ain't a 4" thick Pogue book (Kelby even recommends Pogue's "Missing Manual" for those wanting to dig deeper), just a quick, easy-reading Reader's Digest-sized book for anyone still using 9 but who'd like to go to X.



    Also, they had has new version of "Killer Tips for..." and it was the brand new Panther Edition. Basically, 2 neat little bite-sized tips, tricks, shortcuts, etc. per page. REALLY good stuff, and a nice companion to the one mentioned above.



    [Edit: found the first one from above also: Mac OS X Conversion Kit
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