With the release of OS X 10.9 in October, Apple in November saw the first full month of availability for its latest operating system version, just like Microsoft. Unlike Windows, however, the latest OS X release has already managed to grab first place in market share last month, beating out all its predecessors very quickly.
The latest market share data from Net Applications shows that November 2013 was a big one for Mavericks, which gained 1.58 percentage points (from 0.84 percent to 2.42 percent). All other OS releases lost share: OS X 10.8 fell 1.48 points (from 3.31 percent to 1.85 percent), OS X 10.7 lost 0.22 points (from 1.56 percent to 1.34 percent), OS X 10.6 slipped 0.07 points (from 1.60 percent to 1.53 percent), and OS X 10.5 dipped 0.01 points (from 0.33 percent to 0.32 percent).
Here’s the breakdown in a more visual form:
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OS X users have always upgraded faster than their Windows counterparts. That being said, there are far fewer Macs in the world, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that OS X 10.9 is already leading the way.
Apple will undoubtedly be pleased with the development. Just like Microsoft, the company made its newest operating system version a free upgrade in order to remove a big obstacle that slowed users from getting the latest and greatest software.
The real question now is how long will it take for OS X 10.9 to gain more share than all other OS X versions? It probably won’t happen this year, but we likely won’t have to wait more than a couple of months. We’re betting on January or February, and we’ll let you know as soon as the scales tip again.
See also – Windows 8 falls to 6.66% market share as Windows 8.1 hits 2.64%, but combined the duo barely grows to 9.3% and IE11 doubles market share to 3.27%, Firefox slips a bit, but Chrome still at two-year low
Top Image Credit: AFP PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images
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