Apple Mountain Lion Downloads Exceed Record 3 Million

Users have downloaded more than 3 million copies of Apple’s new Mac OS X Mountain Lion operating system in the four days since its release, according to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). If that’s true, Mountain Lion is the most successful OS X release in company history, if you go strictly by the numbers.

The software is available for $19.99 as an upgrade through the Mac App Store for users running Lion or Snow Leopard. There’s some theorizing out there that the low upgrade price and the fact that a good number of Mac users skipped over Lion (perhaps hoping that the next OS rev would be better) may be fueling Mountain Lion’s record adoption pace. Maybe so, but nevertheless, the uptake is impressive so far.

“Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over 3 million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Late last week, Chitika, an online ad network and data analytics firm, reported that 48 hours after its release Mountain Lion claimed a 3.2 percent share of all Mac users. “Apple’s latest operating system stands to do much better than its predecessor OS X Lion, which experienced only a 14 percent market share after three months on the market,” the company said.

Apple’s ninth-generation OS boasts some 200 new features and tighter integration with its iCloud service to mirror the iOS experience of the vendor’s iPhone and iPad devices, of note offering users the capability to sync and share files and applications between devices.

Mountain Lion features also include the all-new Messages app, Notification Center, systemwide Sharing, Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring and Game Center. Facebook integration is expected in a future update of the operating system, Apple said.

According to Chitika, 45 percent of users still operate on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.