Mac owners adopting OS X Mavericks 3X faster than Mountain Lion
Just 24 hours after launch, the newest revision of Apple's desktop operating system is responsible for 5.5 percent of all North American web traffic originating from Macs, a new study says.
Online advertising network Chitika, who also tracked adoption of OS X Mountain Lion after its release last year, said that Mavericks adoption "significantly outpaces" that of its feline sibling at the same point. Mountain Lion, released last summer, took four days to reach the 5.5 percent threshold, according to the company's measurements.
Chitika speculates that Apple's decision to make Mavericks a free upgrade for Mac owners -- as opposed to Mountain Lion's $19.99 price tag -- is the primary driver behind its quick uptake.
"With these results in mind, it's evident that at least on the OS front, Apple's free desktop software strategy is paying dividends from an adoption standpoint," the company wrote in a blog post Thursday.
Another factor working in Mavericks's favor is its prominent placement as an available update in the Mac App Store, complete with a badge on the store's dock icon and a notification in Notification Center. Previous versions of OS X delivered through the store were not shown as updates; users were required to specifically navigate to and purchase the upgrades.
Mavericks, available to 2007 or newer Macs running Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion, is a significant update to Apple's desktop operating system. The update brings deep architectural enhancements that wring even more battery life out of Apple's laptops, enhanced support for multiple displays, an updated to the Safari web browser, new iCloud Keychain functionality, a new tabbed mode for Finder, and desktop versions of iOS's Maps and iBooks.
The adoption numbers are generated by sampling "millions" of advertising impressions from the United States and Canada through Chitika's advertising network.
Online advertising network Chitika, who also tracked adoption of OS X Mountain Lion after its release last year, said that Mavericks adoption "significantly outpaces" that of its feline sibling at the same point. Mountain Lion, released last summer, took four days to reach the 5.5 percent threshold, according to the company's measurements.
Chitika speculates that Apple's decision to make Mavericks a free upgrade for Mac owners -- as opposed to Mountain Lion's $19.99 price tag -- is the primary driver behind its quick uptake.
"With these results in mind, it's evident that at least on the OS front, Apple's free desktop software strategy is paying dividends from an adoption standpoint," the company wrote in a blog post Thursday.
Another factor working in Mavericks's favor is its prominent placement as an available update in the Mac App Store, complete with a badge on the store's dock icon and a notification in Notification Center. Previous versions of OS X delivered through the store were not shown as updates; users were required to specifically navigate to and purchase the upgrades.
Mavericks, available to 2007 or newer Macs running Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion, is a significant update to Apple's desktop operating system. The update brings deep architectural enhancements that wring even more battery life out of Apple's laptops, enhanced support for multiple displays, an updated to the Safari web browser, new iCloud Keychain functionality, a new tabbed mode for Finder, and desktop versions of iOS's Maps and iBooks.
The adoption numbers are generated by sampling "millions" of advertising impressions from the United States and Canada through Chitika's advertising network.
Comments
“Apple never would have sold any at all. Good thing they made it free.”
Not making paranoid accusations, just seems a little odd.
Why wouldn't they? In general Apple has covered as many models, as many years back as is possible. It is good for Apple and good for the customers.
Can a developer point out any modifications in the underlying code that would make Apple want to push this on just about every Intel based Mac out there?
I felt the same way when they put out iOS 7 working all the way back to iPhone 4, which I can attest is terrible.
On models that are 7 years old?
It gives them a huge edge against Microsoft. They can boast quicker adoption rates, and can also significantly boost their installation base against Windows, not to mention consolidate it. It's also a great marketing ploy to show businesses how 6-year old computers can still be of use to help stave off equipment purchases to stretch budgets. It's a win-win for everyone. Windows dominates the installation base globally, but if you look at the numbers it's all because of outdated software. Almost half of which XP is responsible for, yet MS doesn't even support it any longer!
"Chitika speculates that Apple's decision to make Mavericks a free upgrade" may be why?
DUH!!!!!!!
"Windows dominates the installation base globally, but if you look at the numbers it's all because of outdated software."
Were purchasing Brand New outdated MB/Processors/Memory for WIN XP so we can have 10 back up PC's for our Plotter/CAD PC's because we do not want to spend 3 Grand per PC to upgrade the software.
$450.00 PC hard ware
$4500.00 Total
$3000.00 New License + $800 New Hardware with WIN 7 or WIN 8.1 for 6 PC's
$22,800.00 Total
They have a large proportion of their Mac base still on snow leopard and cannot justify cutting security update support for it, so any incentive to get people off of it is a huge benefit to Apple.
The money they were making on the sale of OS X etc is peanuts compared to the profit of selling the computers in the first place, happy customers are repeat customers.
I can't help but wonder why they are offering a major upgrade for free and covering so many model's over so many model years.
Not making paranoid accusations, just seems a little odd.
I think Apple had the time and felt it was time for a 'tidy up'. There was a big 'clean up' across all their apps, both in OSX and IOS. To make the apps and the OS environments all work together it made sense to roll out the changes to an as broad a base as possible. I think they went beyond what was required but who's complaining?
I can't help but wonder why they are offering a major upgrade for free and covering so many model's over so many model years.
Not making paranoid accusations, just seems a little odd.
Apple has been doing free system upgrades for iOS for years so it seems perfectly reasonable that OS X upgrades would be as well. I think expectations have changed; there would be grumbling if it weren't free. Also, as someone else pointed out the free system upgrade is akin to a stock buyback in terms of returning value to stakeholders (in this case existing customers).
Are there any horror stories yet about upgrading to Mavericks? How risky is being an early adopter this time around?
Have been using Mac and apple equipment at home since 1986. Always had PCs at work. My home equipment was always better than my work equipment. Mavericks OS is the best I have worked with!
1. It's the absolute finest iteration of OS X.
2. It's free (but, say, 29 bucks is barely the price of a meal for two, and you would have gotten an entire OS for it.)
3. It runs on hardware going back to 2007. For instance, it runs very well on my early 2008 Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz with 6GB RAM.
All in all, as close to perfect as an OS X release can get.
Of course the new OSX is being adopted more quickly. Free is always the best price.
But it would have sold fine. Every single iteration of OSX has sold fine.
There has never been a poorly selling version of OS X.
If this one is free, that's due to a strategic decision by Apple.
On models that are 7 years old?
Doesn't it run on the same models that Mountain Lion runs on? The number of years is not a factor. It is just models with 64 bit kernel capabilities. Eventually some older 64 bit kernel machines might get EOL'd by some other hardware issue like the graphics adapter.
To spirt sales in floundering Mac business, of course.
All "PCs" across the board are in decline. It's market wide. Apple has historically managed to *still* outpace the industry, though.
Except now there's the phenomenon called iPad. I doubt Apple minds its role as a Mac successor in some key ways.
Additionally, decline or not, Apple has dominated PC Consumer Satisfaction ratings for just about a decade now, often by a wide margin. So if someone *does* have $1000+ to shell out for computer, Macs are still the cream of the consumer computing segment.