New data from NetMarketShare reveals that Mac OS X has been steadily growing the global charge. In May, OS X’s share rose from 5.6% to 5.67% and 5.96% in June and July, separately. By the end of the last month, it had reached 6.03% worldwide and 13.42% in the US.
In the meantime, combined versions of Microsoft’s Windows OS continued to lead the worldwide market with a 92.90% share at the end of August. Linux had 1.07% putting it in third place.
Apple’s latest desktop operating system, OS X Lion, already accounts for 1.03% share of the overall market compared to 1.17% for Leopard and 3.46% for Snow Leopard. These figures are based on a sample of 160 million internet visitors that Net Applications says it tracks. In addition, Leopard and Snow Leopard’s marketshare dropped from 1.24% and 4% as users upgraded to Lion. Mac OS X’s combined share still rose still rose from 5.96% to 6.03% due to the sales of the new Mac models.
Lion’s adoption among consumers has significantly improved when compared with the Snow Leopard upgrade. The latter claimed just 0.78% share after its first month and passed 1% only during its second month of sales, despite being priced, like Lion, at $29.99.
A day after Apple released OS X Lion, the company announced that it had sold 1 million copies of the software, making it the most successful operating system launch in its history.
