MacUsers Eagerly Upgrade OS X – Microsoft Struggles To Get Users To Adopt Newest Windows

Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer notes that unlike desktop OS rival Microsoft, Apple has consistently been able to get a significant portion of its Mac customers to quickly upgrade to the newest version of OS X, with the latters last three release versions having been adopted at a rate almost three times that of the best-performing edition of Windows, 2009’s Windows 7.

According to Internet metrics firm Net Applications’ latest posted stats., in their respective first five months of availability OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 – AKA known as Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion – respectively – nearly a third of all Mac owners upgraded to the latest edition.

Five months into its tenure as current OS X version, Mountain Lion is still in third place behind Snow Leopard and Lion respectively, but it’s pretty much a three-way saw-off with Snow Leopard at 30% of all Macs, Lion at 29.9%, and and Mountain Lion at 29.3.

By contrast, in the Windows world, greybeard Windows XP, originally launched in 2001, is still used by nearly 40 percent of Windows users worldwide, Windows 7 took more than a year-and-a-half to reach a 30% share of all Windows PCs, and the current Windows 8 is off to a sluggish sales start.

The wild card with OS X usage is Snow Leopard, whose market share resiliance is testimony to many veteran Mac users disenchantment with what is referred to as the “iOSsification” of OS X in versions 10.7 and 10.8, with some suggesting that 10.6 may be on its way to becoming Apple’s version of Windows XP.

NetMarketShare metrics can be found at:
http://www.netmarketshare.com