Apple’s “most advanced” operating system OS X Lion (formally OS X 10.7) hasn’t exactly been their most popular release. According to Apple’s Press page, Lion sales were hot over the first few days, even seeing over one million downloads in the first day. However, since then the latest version of OS X has faced criticism from both users and reviewers alike.
One of the most frequent complaints about Lion is that the user interface behaves too much like iOS, the operating system on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. While iOS has proven successful on Apple’s product mix, this look isn’t a winning formula on computers. Other notable issues include Wi-Fi stability, poor battery life on MacBook Pros, and an inverted “natural scrolling” function. Too read more about Mac OS Lion interface issues, InfoWorld editor, Galen Gruman, has an excellent summary in his article titled, “Lion Letdowns”.
Chitika Insights has been tracking Lion’s market share growth among all earlier versions of Mac OS. We found that a month after Lion’s release it represented nearly 5% of all Mac traffic we see in our servers. Our September installment of this study, authored by Saikrishna Chavali, showed that OS X Lion had risen to over 14% of all Mac impressions. For references sake, Apple’s iOS5 made up over 20% of total iOS traffic within a week of its release.
In our latest report, we saw that Lion had only grown to 16% of Mac OS traffic. Lion is only the third most popular Mac operating system, still well behind Snow Leopard (55%) and Leopard (22%).
Lion’s adoption rate has been less than stellar, to say the least. While we are seeing consistent monthly growth, Lion isn’t taking off the way some had anticipated. From June to September, Lion’s share grew at about 4.05% each month. Since September, Lion’s monthly growth has slowed to a rate of 0.98%.
The once hyped OS X Lion is now in a state of arrested development; they’re growing, but not nearly at the rate newly released operating systems have grown in the past. Historically Mac users are quick to adopt the latest Apple software, as in the case with our iOS5 report, leading us to believe there are some real issues preventing users from making the $29.99 upgrade. However, keep in mind that Lion has only seen two updates since it came out, and it’s likely that they have some solid moves in their pipeline that will get more costumers to upgrade.
We’d like to know what our Apple-using readers think about OS X Lion. Is the criticism unfair, or is Lion really “Apple’s Vista”? Are you satisfied with the upgrade? Have you switched back to or stuck with OS X 10.6 and 10.5? Let us know with your comments!
EDIT: In light of recent contradictions to this study, we’d like to share our methodology to clarify how we got our data.
We pass the user agent to identify the growth distribution of the different operating systems based on the count of impressions coming in through our ad network over the date range in our study. The composition of Chitika’s network covers a fair share of both desktop traffic and mobile traffic, equitable to their respective distributions seen on the web. Just to be certain, we’ve run the numbers again which yielded minor differences (Lion is now 18.8% of total Mac OS traffic, not 16%). Given this, we are confident standing by the assertions made in our prior study.
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About Chitika Insights
Chitika Insights was the research arm of online advertising network Chitika. Insights used Chitika's unique data to monitor and report on Internet trends - search engines, clickthrough rates, the mobile war, and more.
Additionally, the Chitika Insights team monitored the day's tech news closely, and provided an in-depth, data-driven commentary on the latest breaking news. Our studies and data have been featured prominently in major publications, such as The New York Times, Forbes, Barrons and about 3000+ respected publications.
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[…] 10.7) hasn’t exactly been their most popular release,” Chitika’s Ryan Cavanagh wrote on the company’s blog. ”According to Apple’s Press page, Lion sales were hot over the first few days, even […]
[…] 10.7) hasn’t exactly been their most popular release,” Chitika’s Ryan Cavanagh wrote on the company’s blog. ”According to Apple’s Press page, Lion sales were hot over the first few days, even […]
[…] about the results, Ryan Cavanagh from Chitka said: "Apple’s ‘most advanced’ operating system OS X Lion (formally OS X […]
[…] Web ads publisher Chitika has released data which suggest that adoption rate for Apple’s Mac OS X 10.7 ‘Lion’ has flatlined. […]
[…] about the results, Ryan Cavanagh from Chitka said: "Apple’s ‘most advanced’ operating system OS X Lion (formally OS X […]
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[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] diferite. Nu foarte multi posesori de Mac-uri s-au grabit sa cumpere OS X Lion si asta se vede in rata de adoptie a noului sistem de operare. In octombrie, OS X Lion a avut cea mai mica rata de crestere de pana […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion usually binds 16% of the Mac OS marketplace share, trailing at the back of Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating bad embracing a cause of the newest handling complement in more aged to prior releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] Web ads publisher Chitika hаѕ released data whісh suggest thаt adoption rate fοr Apple’s Mac OS X 10.7 ‘Lion’ hаѕ flatlined. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] X 10.7 Lion is being run on 16% of all Macs after seeing a highly successful launch, but sales have slowed to a crawl, barely outpacing adoption of Apple’s previous version Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard which is […]
[…] seeing a highly thriving launch, but sales have slowed to a crawl, barely outpacing adoption of Apple‘s previous version Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard […]
[…] X 10.7 Lion is being run on 16% of all Macs after seeing a highly successful launch, but sales have slowed to a crawl, barely outpacing adoption of Apple’s previous version Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard which is […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] X 10.7 Lion is being run on 16% of all Macs after seeing a highly successful launch, but sales have slowed to a crawl, barely outpacing adoption of Apple’s previous version Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard which is […]
[…] Chitica, Net Applications Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Tweet //ADD VALUES FOR PLACEMENT […]
[…] about the results, Ryan Cavanagh from Chitka said: "Apple’s ‘most advanced’ […]
[…] about the results, Ryan Cavanagh from Chitka said: "Apple’s ‘most advanced’ operating system OS X Lion (formally OS X […]
So let’s see here. Apple sells more than 1.5 Macs equipped with Lion each month, but, to you, Lion adoption is stagnating. Netcraft survey’s show a fast and steady increase in Lion’s use.
I think it’s time we take your survey and transport it to the trash bin where it belongs.
You said it yourself. Apple is selling… that does not mean people are adopting by choice. Apple sells 1.5 mil computers, and 1.5 mil computers running Lion are added to the statistics. This does not mean that people necessarily would pick Lion over Snow Leopard… They were essentially forced into it. With that In mind, adoption is very slow.
Vista sold well because of all the computers it came pre-loaded on. But that did not stop a lot of people from continuing to use XP. Its the a similar scenario.
[…] [chitika] […]
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] – Chitika via […]
[…] [via] Cancel reply […]
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The issues simply are:
a) Color scheme for the color blindb) Pointless “improvements” which made things worse, like Mission Control which lacks vital functionalty compared to SLs spacesc) Outright dangerious versioning and autosave which ignores pretty much every experience gathered in the last 20 years with version control systems (no tagging, and marking of the last stable state, no end user control whenever something is saved or versioned)The idea of nailing tablet extensions which work for small limited portable devices onto a desktop operating system simply backfired and the users simply hate to downgrade from the close to perfect Snow Leopard.
Pro users’ need not look any further than Snow Leopard for the most stable and highly productive Mac OS. Let’s get down to bare bones here, it’s about getting work done!
I won’t touch it. Got a well working MBP 17″ Core Duo. No Lion on it ever. I do not want to have machinery in the household which is separated by iCloud. We’re looking to other options in view of MobileMe getting the death knell and iCloud not available for one of the much used machines.
Losing Rosetta seems like the Rubicon for Mac users
[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
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[…] adoption rate has been less than stellar, to say the least,” Chitika reported in a blog post Friday, citing data that showed Lion was only the third-most-popular of all Mac editions with a 16% […]
[…] Apple used Lion to migrate many iOS behaviors and features to the Mac, just 16 percent of users have adopted the desktop software, according to ad service Chitika. Introduced in July, the OS is […]
[…] Apple used Lion to migrate many iOS behaviors and features to the Mac, just 16 percent of users have adopted the desktop software, according to ad service Chitika. Introduced in July, the OS is […]
Autosave ruined everything.
[…] adoption rate has been less than stellar, to say the least,” Chitika reported in a blog post Friday, citing data that showed Lion was only the third-most-popular of all Mac editions with a 16% […]
[…] Apple used Lion to migrate many iOS behaviors and features to the Mac, just 16 percent of users have adopted the desktop software, according to ad service Chitika. Introduced in July, the OS is […]
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[…] According to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Lion only holds 16% of the Mac OS market share, trailing behind Snow Leopard (56%) and Leopard (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating system in comparison to previous releases. […]
[…] effet, la version 10.7 ne représente que 16% de parts de marché selon Chitika, une entreprise spécialisé dans l’analyse de la publicité sur internet, très loin des 56% […]
I am very dissapointed with Mac X lion(current release). I have purchased a Brand new Imac i5 with Lion and it runs slower than my older mac with snow leopard(The new Mac has better specs/faster processor). I feel totally cheated.
The load times are longer when starting the machine, the memory use is higher, there are periodic lags in response when opening/closing applications. I ran “top” in a terminal window during some of the laggy periods and the CPU and disk I/O were low.
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My 5+ year old Dell m1330 Core Duo 3 gig memory 2.4ghz running Ubuntu blows my new lion out of the water. I mean WTF !
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I hope apple removes some of the bloat….In the interim I may add an SSD as the primary drive and see if that makes it more acceptable.
I am nervous to upgrade my older faster machine to Lion, the whole point of buying the new machine was to take advantage of cloud services between the 2 macs and an Ipad. I think it’s BS that cloud services can not be installed on leopard without the upgrade to Lion.
I should have just stuck to Ubuntu..saved some cash…had some lightning fast computers.
Too many apple fanboys wont speak up ……..yes “the emporer has no clothes”
[…] X 10.7 Lion is being run on 16% of all Macs after seeing a highly successful launch, but sales have slowed to a crawl, barely outpacing adoption of Apple’s previous version Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard which is […]
Mac Os X lion is very disappointing, some good ideas and some ridiculous choices.
Why scrolling has become so difficult with a mouse ?
Was it necessary to eliminate rosetta ?
Just wanted to say I completely agree with chuck. My wife has the same exact MBP except she bought hers a little earlier and it came with snow leopard. Mine bought a few months later came with Lion. Hers screams, mine performs HORRIBLY!! Constant lag, can’t have more than a few applications open at a time or it is unuseable. Definitely Vista on a Mac, but at least with Vista I was able to go ahead and load XP. Apple does not allow you to put Snow Leopard on a machine shipped with Lion. PERIOD. What kind of BS is that! I did find a tut on how to do it that requires two macsand firewire cable. Ordered the cable and cant wait to try it.
[…] Apple used Lion to migrate many iOS behaviors and features to the Mac, just 16 percent of users have adopted the desktop software, according to ad service Chitika. Introduced in July, the OS is […]
In my case, I haven’t upgraded to Lion primarily because a) the feature set doesn’t seem robust enough and b) we’re still using good ol’ Office 2004. So, even though the $29.99 is a great price for an OS upgrade, it also means we’d have a to shell out $150 for a new Office suite. And, to take advantage of some of the new iCloud functionality in Lion, I’d still have to upgrade to the new iPhoto, which is another $50. So the great intro price suddenly isn’t so great after all. In the end it’s a cost benefit analysis and for the time being, the scales don’t tip in favor of the benefits (at least in our situation).
Peace be with you.
[…] adoption rate has been less than stellar, to say the least,” Chitika reported in a blog post Friday, citing data that showed Lion was only the third-most-popular of all Mac editions with a 16% […]
[…] story floated around a week or so ago in which an online analytics company, Chitika, suggested that Lion uptake by Mac users had actually been pretty slow and that the OS may not be […]
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[…] einer Studie des Unternehmens Chitika läuft auf der Mehrzahl von Macs noch immer Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Über 50 % aller […]
Hey, at least it now tells you your name in the upper right corner, just in case you forgot it. Apple put on their thinkin’ cap for that one. Unfortunately my name is “Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvim John Kenneth Loyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor Willian Xerxes Yancy Zeus”.
Immediately upgraded to Lion on my brand new iMac in July. Have never used a more unwieldy, frustrating, slow operating system! It takes over 2 minutes for my computer to turn on, freezes randomly and often, is incredibly slow, uses an inordinately large amount of memory more than what I have put on it, no longer communicates with my external hard drive, and basically drives me nuts! Never thought I’d say it as a one of a family of mac users, but is totally turning me off mac! Hate it! How do I go back to snow leopard?
[…] Reported to Chitika, an analytics company, Mac OS X Big cat only holds 16% of the Raincoat ORIFICE market share, down aft Downfall Leopard (56%) and Fur (22%) — indicating poor adoption of the newest operating group in comparison to previous releases. […]
Simply despise Lion after 5 months of use. Viscerally hate it with nothing I like better than the previous OS x. Slow, crashes, unwieldy, counterintuitive, hate iCloud, hate dependency on high speed internet for everything on the current Mac. Been a Mac fan for well over a decade, loved Snow Leopard, but I am almost ready to abandon my iMac.
Lion is terrible– the worst Mac OS ever. Autosave and Versions are not useful to many people, and Apple’s implementation has damaged what was a completely acceptable workflow. Bugs, missing keyboard shortcuts, persistent, automatic versions of stuff I typed but later deleted, two steps to do what used to take one, reversed workflow logic, renamed functions… First time I’ve ever gone back to an older Mac system ever, and I’d rather switch to Windows or Linux if this is how the Mac is going to be from now on (and yes, I’ve got an iPhone, and think it’s great– but don’t deal with making complex documents with multiple authors on my iPhone!).
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[…] year, Chitika reported that the adoption of OS.X 10.7 Lion was lagging behind expectations and that users weren’t […]