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Apple says Mac OS X Lion downloads top 1 million in first day

Apple on Thursday announced that downloads of Lion, its latest upgrade to the Mac OS X operating system, exceeded one million in its first day of availability on the Mac App Store.

Those numbers put Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X, off to the fastest start of any operating system in Apple history.

"Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made."

The performances of Apple's operating system releases continue to improve over the years, with this week's launch of Lion representing a new personal best for Apple. In 2009, the debut of Snow Leopard doubled the efforts of its predecessor, Leopard. Like Snow Leopard, Lion carries a low $29.99 upgrade price.

Lion launched on Wednesday and is available exclusively through the Mac App Store for $29.99. It is the first operating system that Apple has not offered on any sort of physical medium, as users can only download it with an Apple ID account, though it will become available on a USB thumb drive for $69 in August.

Lion boasts more than 250 new features, including new Multi-Touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control to view everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store; Launchpad, an iPad-like home screen for apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app. Other major features include:

  • Resume: brings apps back exactly how they were left when restarting a Mac or quitting and relaunching an app
  • Auto Save: automatically and continuously saves documents as you work
  • Versions: automatically records the history of a document as it is created, and gives an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions;
  • AirDrop: finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.

Initial impressions from the mainstream media have been extremely positive, with tech journalists at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today giving the latest version of Mac OS X high marks.



54 Comments

lilgto64 19 Years · 1146 comments

maybe I *should* re-donwload it for each machine I will install it on - of course those with slow or capped internet may not be able to do so.

I will be putting mine onto 4 systems in my house.

tallest skil 14 Years · 43086 comments

That's $30 million and way more than a million installs counting people with multiple Macs and idiot pirates, so that's neat.

buzzwriter 18 Years · 9 comments

I've been waiting for almost an hour and the download icon still says "waiting" for the download to start. From what I'm reading, it'll be worth the wait.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple on Thursday announced that downloads of Lion, its latest upgrade to the Mac OS X operating system, exceeded one million in its first day of availability on the Mac App Store.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ][/c]

ochyming 18 Years · 472 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

That's $30 million and way more than a million installs counting people with multiple Macs and idiot pirates, so that's neat.

: Who pirates a 30 bucks OS ?
: Yeah!, A lousy .app to use occasionally maybe.

tallest skil 14 Years · 43086 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by jsmythe00

My house is looking more and more like an apple retail store.

You probably don't need to worry until you start trying to purchase sphere chairs.