Apple mocks Windows 7 adoption rates with phony figures

By Tom Warren, on 4th Oct 11 5:43 pm with 218 Comments

OS X Lion vs Windows 7 adoption

Apple revealed some interesting statistics during its iPhone event on Tuesday.

New Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage to detail Apple’s adoption rates for OS X Lion. Cook claimed that Apple measures adoption, a percentage of people who upgrade to new software. “If we look at Windows 7, it took Windows 7 about 20 weeks to reach 10% of their install base,” said Cook. “Lion did this in two weeks, one tenth of the time .” Cook also revealed that Lion has been downloaded 6 million times. “The results have been staggering,” he said as a result of digital downloads.

Cook failed to mention several aspects to a Windows 7 adoption rate versus OS X Lion. Apple distributed Lion exclusively via digital downloads. Microsoft offered a download option for potential Windows 7 customers but did not force users to download copies of Windows 7. Apple’s download only option clearly accelerated the adoption of OS X Lion alongside a marketing effort to make users aware of the download only option.

Microsoft also distributed Windows 7 to business and consumer markets at the same time. Apple primarily distributes their systems to consumer markets which typically do not have to wait to upgrade. Microsoft’s Windows operating system is used widely in the corporate world, a market that Apple has failed to penetrate over the years. The adoption rates are significantly slower due to this big difference. Potential Windows 7 enterprise users take years to deploy the next version of Windows, thus slowing down the overall percentage of adoption for existing Windows users.

It’s worth noting that despite the hype, Apple has only shipped 6 million copies of Lion. In comparison, Microsoft has sold over 400 million licences of Windows 7. The operating system is also expected to be installed on 42% of all PCs by the end of 2011. Windows 7 will also ship on 94% of all new PCs during 2011 according to Gartner, that’s nearly 635 million new PCs. Nevertheless, 72% of statistics are made up and 82% of people believe in them right?

  • Enmanuel Romero

    this is insane

    • Anonymous

      I think Apple is a little scared by W8 and the emerging WP7/8 and is trying to brainwash fanbois to think Windows is going nowhere. I really think W8 and its ripple effect on WP can have a devastating impact on Apple.

    • Anonymous

      It doesn’t help that I see no ads for Windows Phone 7 on TV. Everything is Droid Bionic and HTC, WTF?

    • Anonymous

      Be patient. Wait until Mango devices go on sale. This is their first real launch. And when W8 tablets arrive, WP will sell with no ads.

    • rsgx

      @WWPX:disqus I really hope you’re right. I want this platform to do well, but they’ve disappointed us before with the so called ‘marketing’.

      It needs to be much more aggressive.

  • http://twitter.com/Daniel_H_UK Daniel Hartshorn

    Typical Apple i wouldnt be suprised if they turned around and said that Windows 7 was there idea

    • Anonymous

      OMG….Remember the MS commercials where the tagline was “Windows 7 was My Idea”? Your comment just puts a totally hillarious spin on it!

    • Anonymous

      Please note I will be selling some ‘S’ stickers for $0.99 so iPhone 4 owners have a cheaper upgrade option #letstalkiphone

    • Anonymous

      Haha…. hilarious!

    • Anonymous

      When it comes to Apple fans, you may have an easier time selling if you actually increase the price.

    • Baz

      I think it would have been funnier tagline if the title had been referring to:
      Apple mocks Windows 7.5 (or Mango) adoption rates with phony figures

    • Anonymous

      Here, here.

    • Anonymous

      Even that doesn’t quite do it.  MS sold 70x more Win7 licenses than Apple has sold Lion licenses.  

    • http://twitter.com/jonfingas Jon Fingas

      Actually, the whole combined app shortcut/running apps unified taskbar *was* Apple’s idea.  Not a whole lot else, but it’s also the most conspicuous difference in Windows 7.

    • Anonymous

      Does Apple task bar have something like the jump lists in Win 7?  Not asking out of argument, just curious.

    • Anonymous

      Not only that, but does the Apple dock bar have Pinned items?

    • Guest

      Are you on crack? HP and other *nix suppliers had unified taskbars long before Apple.  

    • His Shadow

      Really. A “File Edit View” bar qualifies as a “unified” taskbar? Okay.

    • Matthewmsft

      are we forgetting about the Quicklaunch bar? not sure when it came in tho…

    • His Shadow

      It was their idea. Windows was and is a copy of the Mac OS. It’s where Microsoft got all their GUI ideas.

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/ZephyrnixLive Lydell Washington

      And Apple got their GUI ideals from Xerox… it’s how the world works.

    • Major Plonquer

      And Xerox got their GUI ideas from Charles Simonyi – who later went to Microsoft.

  • Anonymous

    Given that all they have announced so far are copied features of Windows Phone Mango, they were desperate for slide content.

  • Guest

    The difference is that for OS X Lion, buyers found out they were really beta testers.

    • His Shadow

      Like when Windows sufferers ran out and bought Vista?

  • Anonymous

    I cant wait to sell my Ipad 2! Win8 tablets FTW!!!!

    • Anonymous

      Get the Acer W500. W8 rocks on that little puppy.

    • Anonymous

      The Asus EEPad Sate…
       

    • Anonymous

      I may have to do that thanks.

    • His Shadow

      You don’t have an iPad2. And if you did, why are you waiting? Run out and get a Windows tablet now! They do make them.
      But you wouldn’t know that because no one gives a crap about them.

    • Anonymous

      How are you going to tell me I don’t have an Ipad 2? I paid into the hype and now I want something that will truly work the way I want it too. Perhaps you should buy you one sounds like you could find more use with it. I’m waiting for the metro Win 8 tablets try reading a bit.

    • His Shadow

      It’s called mockery. The boards are full of people who claim to have every Apple device ever made and how they can’t wait to ditch it. And again, what are you waiting for? There are crappy battery life tablets running Windows available right now.

  • Anonymous

    I truly hate apple for always posting stats that go in their favour and degrade competition, 99% of the time being Microsoft. Typical pathetic rotten Apple.

    • http://twitter.com/jonfingas Jon Fingas

      You mean like what Microsoft does all the time?  Microsoft is the reason the term FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) exists.  It withholds stats and commissions “independent” (read: third party rigged to produce only one conclusion) studies to show how Linux is the Devil incarnate or to use false data to incorrectly claim Macs are more expensive.

      I’m not saying Apple is innocent, but don’t ignore history just because Apple is on its way up while Microsoft is on the decline.

    • Anonymous

      How is MSFT on the decline? Please present stats to back up your assertion, or else you’re just trolling.

    • Anonymous

      Also provide some evidence of all these evil deeds MS seems to be performing.  Considering Linux users are vocal, paranoid, tin-foil hat types, they would be screaming all over the place if this were true.  We normally just get their paranoia and then it gets disproven and fades into the ether.

      Microsoft is still doing better than they ever have before so I don’t know how you think they are on the decline. MS isn’t growing at a slower rate, the percentage just drops as the number of users grow larger, but it seems you are one of the people that Apple tends to fool with warped info like this.

    • Anonymous

      You mean Macs aren’t more expensive? That’s news to me.

    • Guest

      Wrong again. The term dates back to the 1920′s. It was brought back by Amdahl to describe IBM. And MS withholds stats? LOL, Apple is the King of that!

      You really need to stop posting here and go crawl back to wherever ignorant itards hang out.

    • His Shadow

      Yeah, let’s go back to the 90s were Microsoft routinely announced plans for software and devices that never materialized just to freeze competition and kill competition. And yeah, the “Macs are expensive!” trope went out in the 90s, but Microsoft insists on preaching to it’s installed base, so we keep hearing the same crap over and over.

  • http://twitter.com/bnlf Bruno Nunes

    lol to apple. my god these guys for real? lame company.

    • His Shadow

      Most valuable company on the planet, most popular devices in almost every category.

      Your definition of “lame” is rather off the mark.

    • Anonymous

      Where they are the most popular they have the largest monopoly (which they exploit by suing other competitors and through license and distribution deals through iTunes).

      Outside of the iPod and iPad, which devices do they have that are the most popular?  The iPad will soon go the way of the iPhone because of Android!

      The only place they OWN is the one in which they need to get sued for unfair competitive practices: iTunes, iPod, Safari browser installed as default browser on every iOS device.

      Microsoft was sued for having IE installed as a default device on their monopoly OS in the late 90′s.  The iPod is the monopoly device for music and has Safari installed by default.  Their popularity exists because there aren’t any other realistic options.

    • His Shadow

      “they would have charged more for it.”

      That’s right. Apple made legal deals for the right to distribute content from the content producers. You know that this is how the world of content distribution works, right?

      “they exploit by suing other competitors ”

      Apple’s IP and designs are being exploited by copycat competition but it’s Apple that’s the bad guy? Nice try. Don’t copy Apple designs or steal it’s IP, you don’t get sued. It’s that simple.

      “The iPad will soon go the way of the iPhone because of Android!
      The iPhone is the single most popular handset in the world and Apple has over 50% of the profit made in the modile industry. Is that “the way” you are talking about? Being so successful at what they do that they have 100 billion in the bank? In that case, yes, the iPad is going that way, as the competition continues to fall flat on it’s ass for two years running.

      “Microsoft was sued for having IE installed as a default device on their monopoly OS in the late 90′s. ”

      Microsoft was also sued for tying it’s browser into the OS making it impossible to extricate without comprimising the OS, not for merely bundling the software.

      “Their popularity exists because there aren’t any other realistic options. ”

      Yes, the iPod is popular because the alternatives are not as good. Thank you.

    • Anonymous

      So… remove Safari from iOS…

      YUP, didn’t think so. Next time, troll harder.

      Apple = the corporate policy suck but get’s away with it cuz they’re shiny. Android = more market share than Apple. How’s that “most popular” working out for you now?

      OH, and just cuz I can, don’t you think Microsoft made exclusive deals with hardware vendors to ship Windows? Just because they can do it doesn’t make what they do right.

      It’s uncompetitive and if you don’t think the same you’re clearly not rationally looking at the facts. Microsoft was uncompetitive and Apple is the Microsoft of the 90′s (while Google fights to dethrown Apple).

    • His Shadow

      “So… remove Safari from iOS…”

      Why? iOS is a closed system, controlled by Apple running exclusively on Apple devices. Try to grasp the basics before you conflate the 90s anti-trust case against Microsoft with Apple’s admittedly closed and controlled mobile OS.

      “Next time, troll harder.”

      Don’t be obtuse. Disagreeing with your off hand and ill thought out comments is not trolling. I won’t bother to refer to you as a troll because it’s clear your statements are made from ignorance, and not a clear intent to inflame.

      “Apple = the corporate policy suck but get’s away with it cuz they’re shiny.”

      This comment makes absolutely no sense.

      “Android = more market share than Apple. How’s that “most popular” working out for you now?”

      You already know this if you read anything other than blog posts. The iPhone is the single most popular smartphone in the world and only by cobbling together a 100+ different Android models do you end up withj a statistic that “beats” Apple. By every single other measure of success, Apple is the most successful company in mobile. By profits, by influence, by model to model comparisons, and by the growth in Apple’s value. To deny that Apple is the single most successful company in the smartphone business is to be wholly ignorant of reality.

    • Anonymous

      Dude…
      1. Just because it’s closed doesn’t mean it’s NOT anti-competitive.
      2. What other “mobile” devices is Android adding together to form their larger market share?
      4. iTunes is still, regardless of “deals” and “contracts” with record labels, an abuse of a monopoly.
      5. If I concede that Apple’s iOS is the most popular mobile OS and the iPhone is the most popular smartphone based on “sales figures” etc. AND by that you infer it’s superior, do you concede that Windows is the most popular desktop OS and therefore, by that same logic, the superior OS because of it’s inflated sales numbers and market share? (I doubt you will) 6. R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You’ll certainly be missed. It’s sad to see a revolutionary technology leader like Steve go.

    • His Shadow

      1. There are no barriers to entry in the mobile phone/smartphone industry. None. The surfiet of models in the smartphone space is ample evidence. Apple has no ability to be in an anti-trust position with 5% of the gobal phone market. So, wrong.
      2. You are kdding, right? There isn’t even a common agreement on what constitutes a “true” Android phone. There is no one Android phone, and the carriers have modified Android at will. “Android” is not a single phone with a single, consistent interface. Android is the base OS. There are more than what, 300 Android phones? Which one of those has sold anywhere near as much as the iPhone?
      3. It is impossible for a collection of legal agreements to legally distribute content from 3rd parties to be abusive by the mere fact it exists. You are obviously unaware of Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and dozens if not hundreds of outlets, stores and web stores that distribute the exact same content free of interference of any kind from Apple. Your claims are without merit.
      4. I never claimed iOS was superior merely because it is so popular. it is so popular because of it’s tightly integrated vertical model that allows for an ease of use and consistency acroos devices that appeals to consumers. It is so popular because it raised the bar for what people should expect from their mobile technology.

  • John

    It’s not phony? What the heck has it being available solely by download got to do with the adoption rate. 

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Did you not read the article? Apple releases to mainly consumer markets.

    • Dixonjr79

      Hello Tom,

             Could you please do an article on something like Iphone 4S? Time to consider WP7 

    • Grs_dev

      You’re not getting it. The adoption rate of a software product such as OS X Lion and Windows 7 are greatly governed by the people they are targeting, the medium they are delivered through, and last but certainly not least, the impact on business among other factors.

      It’s obvious that you’ve never been involved in an IT organization where the vendor said “Thou shall upgrade!” Those kinds of practices don’t fly with business installations. Even if it was free and Lion wasn’t/isn’t.

      If Apple was interested in an accurate depiction they would have shown a graph that shows how fast Lion reached 1 million users and compared it to how fast Windows 7 reached 1 million users. The chart would look very different.

    • Anonymous

      Exactly! In talking about adoption rates they totally skewed the numbers (kinda like we WP7′ers when we talk about the rise of apps in the Market, as compared to IOS or Android! :) ) The rate at which 20% of their O.S. base upgraded to Lion, as compared to 20% of Windows users upgrading is LAUGHABLE!! :D Six million total versus [probably] 20million initially! Hah!!! I laughed when I saw that graph!

    • Anonymous

      Businesses make decisions based on return on investment. With a cost of about $100 a seat to upgrade Windows, that is a massive expense to undertake, especially considering it does not provide any benefit whatsoever over the older OS.

      Lion at $29.99 per 10 systems is as low as $2.99 per seat. Hardly a cost consideration.

    • Guest

      W7 doesn’t provide any benefit over XP? Could you be more clueless? 

    • Anonymous

      Name a functional difference that makes using the computer better?

      I don’t mean boot up speed or anything silly like that. Nor do I mean eye-candy. Nor anything that is something that can be added by a free download (Windows Snap for example).

    • Anonymous

      @GDal:disqus 
        Better networking and device discovery than XP.
        DX 11 and IE9 (many advantages by itself).
        Much better security.
        Modern driver support, and a more stable experience all around.

      As for your comment about Lion being low cost for Businesses. They don’t care so much about the cost of the OS itself. They care about compatibility and that is something Apple doesn’t deal well with. MS does an excellent job in making each new OS backwards compatible with major software. Apple doesn’t seem to care if it breaks something major or not, as evidenced with the problems I have seen with people upgrading to Lion.

    • Anonymous

      “Better networking and device discovery than XP.”
      Does this mean that network devices already in place work better? No.

      “DX 11 and IE9 (many advantages by itself).”
      Do these make the programs in use already better? No. DX 11 is about games, and that’s not a functional improvement. Eye-candy.

      “Much better security.”
      Does this make the software in use work better? No. Better in what way? Viruses still affect systems, and the “security” is more annoyance than improvement. That’s why most people disable it.

      “Modern driver support, and a more stable experience all around.”

      Does modern driver support help devices in place work better? No. There are many devices that won’t work after upgrading to W7, requiring new drivers or new equipment purchases. Hardly an improvement. Just an added expense.

      I will agree that W7 is more stable, but how much more? Enough to pay for 1000 upgrades? I don’t think so, and business are showing that with their slow adoption.

      “They don’t care so much about the cost of the OS itself. They care about compatibility and that is something Apple doesn’t deal well with. MS does an excellent job in making each new OS backwards compatible with major software. ”

      If that’s the case, why aren’t Win7 business adoption rates higher? Cost isn’t an issue? Then why do businesses bother with accountants?

      “Apple doesn’t seem to care if it breaks something major or not, as evidenced with the problems I have seen with people upgrading to Lion.”

      Do tell. What problems? And don’t mention Quicken, or any other software that was known to not be Lion compatible before its release.

    • Anonymous

      + the original outlay of SL

    • Anonymous

      I think if you got SL in the month prior the Lion upgrade was free.

    • Anonymous

      I think if you got SL in the month prior the Lion upgrade was free.

      I did not mean to post that twice…

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      -”Name a functional difference that makes using the computer better?”

      -”I don’t mean boot up speed or anything silly like that. Nor do I mean eye-candy. Nor anything that is something that can be added by a free download (Windows Snap for example). ”

      LOL so basically lets exclude most reasons why people would want a new OS  :-) The fact is Windows 7 has been adopted faster than Vista or XP.  You don’t need any other reason than that to asses it’s value over previous versions.

      For me personally it was the UI and performance. Performance is far greater than Vista and greater than XP when it comes to video.

      Windows 7 has many many improvements in the UI that also make it far more “functional” than XP.

    • Anonymous

      “The fact is Windows 7 has been adopted faster than Vista or XP. You don’t need any other reason than that to asses it’s value over previous versions.”

      Hmmm. If I changed “Windows 7″ to “iPhone” and “Vista or XP” to “Windows Mobile or Windows Phone 7″, would you make the same statement? Remember, WM is ten years older than iPhone.

    • Anonymous

      Windows 7 initial license cost to consumers is around $100. Subsequent service packs and patches are free. The software is typically supported for 11 years.

      I don’t know of any business that depreciates their computers on an 11 year basis but 3 year is typical. So the cost of Windows is less than $30 bucks a year on volume licensing.

      The cost of OS X in itself is never clear so the same comparison cannot be made. In other words we cannot compare oranges to oranges here; however, I think charging the magic number of $30 for a service pack is somehow – and I am sure purely coincidentally in your mind – eerily similar to how PCs are actually accounted for in the real world. 

    • Anonymous

      Never clear? $29.99 isn’t clear? 10 machine license isn’t clear?

  • Meekermoloko

    But the graph … don’t you see the graph?  OSX is first and it’s in blue and it’s straight as an arrow.  That must mean it’s better.  Windows is all bent crooked.  Man, I gotta buy Apple stock right away before they sell out of shares.

    • http://twitter.com/OldCongress Gamer

      LOL Apple’s graph can’t be all straight, FAIL

  • http://twitter.com/apseymour Andrew Seymour

    Yeah but, this sort of thing happens by company’s that are often losing the battle, they just make shit up!

  • http://twitter.com/Henryed07 Henry Edwards

    I am so glad that there are people on here , who have notice that Apple have copied alot of ‘their’ features from Windows Phone mango, and that Apple can put a false clam on things, and people take it for granted.

    Also this article is great! Can tell any of my apple friends the truth if they bring this up!

    • http://jonadair.co.uk Jon

      I think the graph is talking about adoption rates and how the option to download and install made it very easy to upgrade… Not actual numbers.

      Ahh forget it……. FLAMEWAR!

      –
      Sent from my iPad 2

  • Guest

    I just canceled all of my subscriptions to Engadget. I knew they
    are Apple fanboys before but what are doing with promoting Apple right now is completely
    over my limits.

    • Anonymous

      Engadget is a stupid Apple-site.

    • http://www.facebook.com/VincentLee.PiGuy Vincent Lee

      You haven’t visited Gizmodo in a  while, have you?

  • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

    Yeah, because 6 million is so much more than 400 million.

    Oh, wait…

    • Anonymous

      That’s 450 million.

    • Anonymous

      Did they claim that 6m > 400m? Can you show me that slide? 

    • Anonymous

      It’s simple math @Vendrazi:disqus 

      Would you rather have 10% of your own salary as a bonus or 10% of Jobs or Ballmer’s Salary!? It’s all 10%, so it must be all the same right?! Well apparently that’s only logical in the world that apple deals in and, for the time being they have managed to keep everyone tuned. Today’s conference however may turn out to be the indicator that the industry, the market and investors are starting to yawn…

      The point here is that you can’t use 10% without providing context. Once context is introduced the whole graph and story falls apart.

    • Anonymous

      They said OSX was growing faster than the pc, so yes, they did in fact claim that.

    • His Shadow

      Math is Hard! No they didn’t claim that.

    • http://www.facebook.com/thechrisferreira Chris Ferreira

      And it is. But it’s hard to grow when you’ve approached market saturation. That’s the thing with Apple, and part of why the company is so valuable; it has shown tremendous growth and has the headroom to continue to grow tremendously. The greater marketshare you have the harder it is to capture what is remaining. Its like weight loss, those last five pounds are the hardest to lose. But overall, its a good thing. I grew up an Apple kid as my dad is a graphic designer. Apple has always had a unique take on computing that helps push PC technology forward as a whole, as does Microsoft. The real winners in this revitalized tech war will be us as these companies have to fight harder and harder to one up each other. The only downside is having to deal with a bunch of luddite Apple zealots (not nearly all of them, but a loud minority for sure.)

    • Anonymous

      In one slide they show $60 million macs sold. In the next the show lions adoption but use percentages instead of numbers. Do you think they purposely were trying to mislead people? I they showed actual numbers of pc upgraded to lion and w7, that graph would make lion look pathetic.

  • Guest

    It’s too bad Apple can’t be classier. They’re the biggest company now and the most valuable. Time to grow up and start acting like it. A lot less arrogance and humility would go a long way.

    • Grs_dev

      Wall street valuation means nothing. If you don’t believe me, ask the guys at ENRON :)

    • DonC

      A Wall Street valuation is useful to investors, I agree.

      Perhaps another way to look at how valuable a company is to
      consider what would happen if that company were to simply vanish from
      existence.

    • Penta2100

      I never thought of it that way. What if google just vanished. I don’t know about you but i’m thinking of a life on the beach like the corona comercials

    • His Shadow

      Yeah, a giant sweaty monkey yelling “developers” is the kind of class we need from Apple.

    • Anonymous

      @hisshadow:disqus I’ll tell you this much! When Ballmer got up on that stage and started screaming “developers” some people at apple were listening! They suddenly said a’ha! They the fruits that is finally got it! A few years later a device came out that put developers front row and center. Devalued apps, and flooded the digital world with a pollution like never before. They called them Apps but they were merely brain “farts”. So while enthusiasm my be a black turtle neck and a pair of jeans on sneakers to you, just remember that sweaty monkey you so easily take shots at is the main reason why you today dear sir are able to brag about your ipod, iphone, ipad and iWhatever you admire about Apple. Whether the hard cold cash he and Bill Gates decided to infuse into Apple at the time or the clues they both gave to the late Mr. Jobs on where to spend that money (directly or indirectly), history has clearly documented where the thought leadership was and still is.

      Class and passion rarely intersect but classy is being able to go out there and take it like a man… Well then again it was Tim Cook after all on stage that day…

    • His Shadow

      There is no doubt that Apple’s iOS platform brought more developers to Apple in the last 5 years than had been accomplished in it’s history. But remember that the iPhone shipped with web apps only. The SDK did not come out for another year. And “digital pollution”? You clearly have no idea what’s available for the iOS platform. Apple “devalued” apps in the same way they “devalued” music: by setting up a system that set prices people would actually pay. Ignoring the 10, 50 100 even 500 dollar apps, iOS hosts some if not all of the highest quality free/nearly free apps you can find.

      However, the idea that Ballmer has/had anything to do with the success of Apple this last 5 years is laughable. Steve Ballmer couldn’t grasp the importance of the iPhone when it debuted. If Ballmer or Microsoft or anyone had an inkling what the future was going to look like, they would have made it happen. Instead, as it has always been, they sat around waiting for Apple to show them the way.

      And that 150 million dollars in non voting stock? The initial payoff to settle outstanding lawsuits that Microsoft was going to lose? Yeah, you keep thinking that the 150 million was a “cash infusion” that propped up Apple. As always, it’s more complex than that, but that’s what you get for getting your data from Windows fanboy bloggers.

    • Anonymous

      You can’t compare apps and songs, one inherently plagued with copyright protection while the other is built from ground up to protect its owners in every sense of the words. And yes Apple devalued “software” because in their business model software is meaningless without the hardware it resides on.

      It’s a fundamental difference. Steve Jobs once said quoted Alan Kay in explaining this fundamental difference between the 2 organizations by saying ”people who love software wanna do their own hardware”.

      I said that Ballmer jumping up and down screaming developers inspired apple and gave them the concept of opening the iOS platform to developers considering the timing of things, I meant it in a facetious way; however, one could argue that the whole “love the developers” attitude is something that apple copied from Microsoft. Prior to the iOS, apple’s biggest knock was their lack of developer adoption. So whether that particular rant by Ballmer gave apple the impetus to align its entire iDevice strategy around apps produced and published by developers or Microsoft’s overall success in applying this model did it, I think is negligible.

      Ballmer has been a leader within Microsoft since its early days. If you don’t think that Ballmer has had any connection to the production of Microsoft software that runs on apple then you’re just in denial. Furthermore, if you think the $150 M in non voting stock were to settle lawsuits with a company on its way out (apple was losing 1/2 billion dollars at the time with no end in sight) and had no impact on apple’s rejuvination then you’re also in denial. In essence that gesture in 1997, had the largest software producer in the world betting on a company on the verge of extinction. The intangible value of those non voting stocks is way stronger than any control Microsoft could have exerted to steer apple in any way shape manner or form.  Without that move, you and the many others who are anointing Steve Jobs as messiah wouldn’t have any products to write home about. No iDevices, no iTunes, etc. etc.

  • Anonymous

    Completely understandable. Apple is an underdog when it comes to the desktop, so it’s no wonder they would skew the statistics here. They need that little world of theirs to keep themselves motivated.

  • http://twitter.com/OldCongress Gamer

    Apple’s such a dick, Windows 7 had all of Mac’s install base within a month.

  • Daniel Cassidy

    I will never understand Apple’s sheer audacity and hate towards Microsoft when they more or less saved them from going under not that long ago

    • Grs_dev

      It’s called business. Microsoft doesn’t mind competition. It’s uncompetition and shady practices that they and any other business should be ashamed of.

      If you create a model business where the unfair advantage turns into one where others can’t compete then government and other entities are gonna step in. Apple doesn’t do that. Apple leaves huge room to compete.

      Google on the other hand, they are flat out hijacking perfectly good business models and converting them into nothing but eyeballs. If wall st. wants to keep buying what apple is selling then good for them!

    • Daniel Cassidy

      I fully commend and love competition. But Apple definitely goes out of their way to make condescending remarks bout Microsoft. 
      That being said, I am a fan of both what companies have done in the business over the last decade.
      Competition is good

    • Anonymous

      Actually I think it’s the reverse! Look at the Microsoft model, as compared with Apples’. Microsoft creates innumerable operating fields, and drags up partners to collaborate and create new market potential (just check out their industry partnerships). Apple on the other hand? With the exception (to the rule) being Intel, who else does Apple create new fields to exploit with? (And don’t mention tablets! given that they are suing everyone in sight! :)   )

    • Anonymous

      Apple is suing Samsung for looking similar to their product(when all the phones look similar) and trying to ban them from various countries. They are doing this because Samsung is the first oem to make devices as slim as Apple’s.  Their whole marketing is based on slim and sexy. So when someone competes in that area they sue. Apple will try  block competitor who get to close.

    • His Shadow

      Similar? Samsung ripped off Apple’s designs down to the icons. In case you hadn’t noticed, technology companies are protective of their IP. But go ahead and pretend Samsung is the victim here.

    • Anonymous

      The icons are in the launcher, while Apple’s are on the desktop. The koreans are known to copy designs. Just look at the korean cars. You don’t see BMW and mercedes suing hyundai because elements of the design is similiar. The look of the product isn’t IP. IF it is so similar that people will confuse the products, then Apple has a case. No one is confusing the Samsung and Apple.

    • Guest

      Apple doesn’t do that? What do you call suing mobile competitors not for royalties but to have them foreclosed from the market entirely? Promising publishers they would allow them to charge higher prices on iPad so that they would in turn put the screws to Amazon and drive up the cost of books to consumers? Using their clout to over commit to key components so that competitors have trouble sourcing and then canceling or reducing those orders? iTunes/App store is now a virtual monopoly and Apple takes full advantage of it. I really don’t see why Governments should give them a pass.

    • Anonymous

      When apple does it, it’s called visionary, genius, and revolutionary…

    • http://twitter.com/MichielPapp Michiel Papp

      Apple hates everyone (including the customer) because they try and screw over everyone. They sued their own chip manufacturer. They sue people who do cool stuff on their phones. They screw the hand that saved them…………

      They are apple= master of trolling the tech world!

    • His Shadow

      That’s some erudite analysis there, Mikey. Hard to believe you aren’t working on Wall Street.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft was sued for unfair competition because Internet Explorer shipped on all installs of Windows.  Microsoft had, and still has, a disproportionate large share of the PC market.  

      Apple has a disproportionately large share of digital music distribution and digital music devices known as iPod’s.  Those run iOS which ships with Safari browser installed by default.  There aren’t other options easily available to end users outside of the ease Netscape had with Windows users (go download it).
      Please explain to me how Apple is competing fairly and why they haven’t been sued for what is essentially the EXACT REASON MICROSOFT WAS SUED?
      The only other large competitor, Zune, is now off the market for good!  iPod w/ Safari combination is so prolific that Apple has an unfair advantage and to disagree with that is lunacy.  iPod w/ iTunes is so prolific that they leave only a sliver of the digital music download business available for Amazon, Zune music service, Napster et al!  iTunes has 80% market share right now.  When Microsoft was sued for unfair competition with their IE browser they were near 80% market share.

      Wake up Fanboy and smell REALITY!

    • Anonymous

      It’s called avoiding giant lawsuits like what Intel and the San Francisco Canyon Company had to… I don’t even understand why they wanted to copy QuickTime code to put in Video for Windows, but they did.

    • His Shadow

      Because their own code was crap.

    • His Shadow

      Hate?

      You don’t get out much, do you?

    • Anonymous

      @hisshadow:disqus you must be tired trying to defend Apple on this site! LOL I commend your effort though! Keep it up

    • His Shadow

      I consider it a public service. It’s one thing to engage in the typical fanboy games of “my platforms better than yours”. It isn’t always malicious and and vitriolic and indeed there are still many good trolls on the internet, having fun and twisting noses. It’s another to repeat ad nauseum nonsensical claims that have no basis in reality or, in the case of lawsuits, get written and described as if Apple is the only company to use the patent system to defend it’s products and it’s ideas.

      I have no intention of convincing the world is must buy Apple or burn. People need to buy what works for them. But there are opinions and there are facts. The least any of us can do is base our opinions on the facts, not what we believe are the facts.

  • Anonymous

    10 % of Apple’s base 8 million OSX Leopard installs is 800,000. 4% of Microsoft’s 400 million Windows installs is 16,000,000.

  • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

    It’s funny how EVERY Apple keynote these days is always about inflating big numbers. :-)

    There are some really big numbers with most of Microsoft’s products as well yet they don’t waste everyone’s time talking about how baddass they are.

    I just rolled my eyes when I say that graph.  For the most part Apple forces you to download new OSes..    You want to upgrade your software?  TOO BAD you must upgrade to Lion first. 

    The reason why you still have Windows XP installs out there is that Microsft alows so MUCH more backwards compatability than Apple does.   To all those people complaining that Microsoft finally stopped supporting this or that on Windows XP.  Try running the first OSX 10 “Cheetah” and see how far that gets you ;-)

    • Zztop

      Really? Forces you? How so?

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      Read comment and try again…

    • Anonymous

      I am not aware of any software on the Mac that forces you to upgrade to Lion, however, that said, I think OS X Lion is more or less a service pack or a minor release as indicated by the version number (10.7) and a minor release (aka a Service Pack in the world of Windows) should not be sold for a price. I understand if one insist on getting the software on a hard media as opposed to downloading it and how charging for the cost of burning and shipping the media could be justified, but the downloadable version should have been a free one.

  • Mike

    sadly, you can use statistics to prove anything

  • Grannyville7989

    Wouldn’t it not make sense for the adoption rate of Lion to be higher? Lion has been out since July/August. Whereas, Windows 7 has been out since 2009.

    • Grannyville7989

      misread their chart. My bad.

  • ranjit01

    comparing 10% of bases which are miles apart. Hey Tim, can you do 1+1 =2 ? :)

    • Ghost

      Nice catch ranjit01. Thankfully some people still have common sense.

  • Guest

    What do you expect from a company that markets Lion as “King of the desktop”?

  • Anonymous

    You have to upgrade on Apple systems, because Apple doesn’t believe in backwards compatibility. Apple only charged $29 for Lion, because they’re trying to lock in their customers to the Mac app store.

    • His Shadow

      Better run and tell Sony that lock in is some kind of crime. Nintendo as well. And Microsoft while you are at it. 

    • Anonymous

      The way Apple runs an app store is like the Sopranos, so you could say it’s criminal :) Just ask the EU.
      If Apple felt users would flock to Lion, they would have charged more for it. They had to charge a low price, since there aren’t any compelling reasons for OS X users to use it.

    • His Shadow

      The EU where Apple just opened the iTunes store to the remaining EU nations who use the Euro? Yeah, big problems over there for Apple, what with them opening up the store to another multiple millions of customers.

      ‘they would have charged more for it.”

      Apple makes its money on it’s hardware. it doesn’t have to gouge at Microsoftian levels for it’s software. But you’d know that if you understood Apple.

  • Anonymous

    Timmy, it’s probably worth mentioning that Lion sold as many copies in 2 months as Windows 7 did every 3-4 days for a long, long time. Also, it could be worth while to say that Windows 8 was adopted by the same number of people a year before its release than Lion achieved in 2 months after its release.

  • Alvaro

    Tom why your waste your valious time publishing this news? It’s the most stupid graph I have seen in years.

  • Billg

    Apple skews numbers?  Yeah, and Windows Phone sold “millions” in the first couple months of its launch.

    Wake up you lemmings!

    • Anonymous

      I will reply to your trolling in the style of Apple.  The adoption rate of Windows Phone in my household increased 400% this year.  OSX and iOS product adoption in my household fell by 100%. Which one is looking better now.

      /s

    • Guest

      LOL. You made me smile.
      Well. For me. The adaption rate of Microsoft products this year was 200% only but the adaption rate of the Apple products was 0% as any other year before :D

  • Sarah_gilbert

    Probably most of the Macs run Windows anyways :)

  • Sarah_gilbert

    Stats is like a bikini. Hides more than it reveals

    • Anonymous

      Shouldn’t that be hides the thing that everyone actual wants to see.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

    Anyone feel disappointed at what Apple showed us this evening? No iPhone 4, just an upgraded version for nerds.

  • https://profiles.google.com/christopher.gull/ CG

    There’s a good reason why not a single thing I own is made by Apple. I don’t support a-holes like Apple who constantly enjoy skewing the truth, treat others badly but run crying to mama when someone treats it badly. No matter how good Apple products are, I’ll never have one until they stop making their products filthy.

    • Anonymous

      Enjoy crashing 10x a day on Windoze.

    • https://profiles.google.com/christopher.gull/ CG

      Wow, that’s so much prejudice there, I cannot even say it nicely (if I tried). (Some) Apple guys are like horses with blinders, that just see forward with no peripheral vision. Crashes is not something I come across on a daily basis.. freezing happens sometimes (not enough RAM for PS, premiere pro CS5), but I have so many friends with Macbooks, and freezing is just as frequent there too. You should get some friends who have some knowledge about the practical world.

    • Anonymous

      Do you know anyone who has every crashed 10x a day? Even on xp I never crashed more than once in a day unless there was a hardware failure. When hardware fails, a mac will crash too. Why else would Apple offer Applecare.

    • Anonymous

      I have had XP on my work desktop running for several years and other than forced shutdowns/restarts issued by the IT team for software updates that are typically related to enterprise anti virus and such I can proudly say that I have never crashed nor had to reboot just because!

    • Anonymous

      ArrowSmith I think it’s time you graduated from the 90s and into 2011. That statement may have resonated 10 years ago with average users and novice ones but today even the average guy is going WTF when they read statements like yours.

      There is a good reason why those I’m a Mac commercials don’t air any longer.

  • Emi Cyberschreiber

    you know, when you cant win… and you see there are more news about Windows 8 than what Lion had.
    and people now think its more a service pack than a new OS. and Apple dont support tiger anymore in alot of stuff so some software wont even work for it…
    and when you see alot of people installing Windows in their Macs, even if its pirated or a legal version.

    you have to make up numbers to make your product look good. they are lying themselves.
    but i dont know whats worse… these people at Apple making up numbers to make their OSX look good.
    or people who actually feel glad about OSX ad these numbers and for that reason they start insulting or saying Windows sucks. :)

    • Anonymous

      Are you telling us that you have proof that they didn’t sell 6 million copies of Lion via the App Store?

    • Anonymous

      Tim Cook is saying that they grew faster than the pc market which is false.   The percentage is higher, but the numbers are much much smaller. 

    • Guest

      Duh. Why do you think he quoted growth rate and not unit sales?

    • Anonymous

      Faster than, not more than.

      The growth rate is a normal business metric, used by every business, including Microsoft. As a matter of fact, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single business growth presentation that doesn’t use percentages.

      Listen to talk about the economy. Do they mention that it grow by x trillion dollars, or that it grew by x.x%. Maybe both, but always the percentage is given.

      Business 101…

    • Emi Cyberschreiber

      wow… nice to see how people can change my words…

      which makes me laugh is how silly your comment is, seriously. why proof do i need or would I need?
      the only i can have is how Windows beats the hell out osx in marketshare. so its stupid to make these kinds of graphics just to make OSX look better. does this has something to do with sales? no.

      if i was an Apple fan i would feel a Little ashamed of this kind of “marketing”. 6 million? and how long Windows took to sell 6 million Windows 7? of course they wont say that. they have to look for stupid comparisons like this, like if 10% OSX, could be compared to 10% Windows.
      and does this have to do with sales? no. again, it means how STUPID these kind of comparisons are.

      my point? this comparison is laughable. and good for them if they have sold 6 million Lion. still… for the price and what they say like Osx is better than Windows. 10% seems more stupid than a good comparison. and they don’t have anything good to say, they cant say, osx lion has sold more than windows 7. they cant say windows 7 is taking marketshare and thats why Xp still is more used than 7.

      they only can say Osx is more used than Windows in mac systems. and userbase adoption rate “is better”
       
      you know, what windows 7 did within 3 weeks. and comparing that to adoption rate is just lame. they should have better shut up and easy, dont mention anything at all. i mean comparing to vista was one thing, and comparing it to Windows 7 is another story.

    • Anonymous

      “wow… nice to see how people can change my words…”

      Let’s see. What did you say?

      “you have to make up numbers to make your product look good. they are lying themselves.”

      Cut and Paste. Did you not say that? Are you not saying that they lied about their numbers?

      I don’t care about your idiotic diatribe… If you accuse someone of lying, you bear the burden of proof. But I guess you think otherwise…

      “why [sic] proof do i need or would I need?”

    • Anonymous

      @GDal:disqus Actually they never specified if it was 6 million downloads or 6 million sold.

    • Anonymous

      His specific words were “we have downloaded over 6 million copies of Lion” (time index 7:23). Watch the keynote.

  • Mykel

    So .. considering OS X is just getting Service Packed.. this would make it.. OS X Service Pack 7 .. SP7 that you have to pay for no less.

    • Mykel

      I meant SP8 ..

    • Anonymous

      Do you define a new OS simply by the desktop interface? Changed Control Panel interface?

      Linux 2.4 to 2.6 had no interface changes at all, and if you’re not a techie you would never notice the difference. Was that just a service pack too?

    • Anonymous

      @GDal:disqus So what changed at the kernel in OS X Lion then? I wanna hear your rational on this! No i dont’ think the “shell” constitutes a major version release, but what do you think warrants a major version release in Lion when Apple themselves are saying it’s not one?

    • Anonymous

      Instead of trying to simply deflect my question, how about you actually try to answer it first.

  • http://twitter.com/tmangefeste Tony Mangefeste

    Dilbert mockery of the graph in 3..2..1..

  • Guest

    They needed something to take focus off the fact that they had no iPhone 5. It didn’t work.

  • luke516

    First this, then no iPhone 5? Apple is really disappointing today.
    Not that that’s a bad thing ;)

  • http://twitter.com/atr_ Alexander Rankl

    Thank you so much for this article, I had to laugh out loud when I saw the chart during the presentation because it’s so ridiculous. 

    • Anonymous

      I don’t think Jobs would have ever shown such a chart. He’s well known for not doing idiotic things in public.

    • Anonymous

      No I think Jobs would have shown a slide comparing Lion to all of the various versions of Windows combined and he would have painted a story that would have shown Microsoft as being the one taking the quarter of a billion in the 90s from Apple to stay in business not the other way around.

      Look Steve Jobs the human is suffering from a terminal illness I get it, but Steve Jobs the business person was and probably still is a self centered, self induldging, wrapped in his own reality individual. Just because he’s sick don’t give him more credit than he deserves…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Pedro-Roque/100000194503830 Pedro Roque

    Wow! I wouldn’t call names to Seve, because the man is dying. But this guy, I don’t mind calling him a fucking asshole.

  • http://www.callumpy.co.uk Callumpy

    Bullshit. End of.

  • http://twitter.com/Wheezle211 Wheezle

    Judging from the immediate reaction to the iPhone 4S, I think they can expect some disappointing sales figures of their own.

    • His Shadow

      Keep dreaming. The pitiful mewling of the blogtards won’t hinder sales in the slightest. Or hadn’t you noticed that every last one of the devices hawked by the technorati fail to do any damage to Apple’s products?

    • http://twitter.com/Wheezle211 Wheezle

      Well I don’t know about you, but I prefer to base my predictions on up to date observations, not just assuming everything will go as it has in the past.

      The iPhone 4S announcement was not well received. Fact.

    • His Shadow

      The ravings of Unicorn seekers don’t count. Fact.

      No one in the real world gives a shit about the blogtards obsession with “New! Shiny!” and spec list dick waving. The iPhone 4S was a perfectly logical expectation given the historical facts. And yes, the history of Apple is eactly what a rational person would base their expectations on, not the obviously fabricated loads of digital bullshit about teardrop designs and aluminum enclosures.

  • Anonymous

    I fixed the chart.

  • Anonymous

    MOST DISAPPOINTING KEYNOTE IN 2011 , or i should say of ALL TIME!

  • Grs_dev

    People, this graph says nothing but the obvious. 10% of apple users are fanboys and will jump whenever the company says jump, the remaining 90% don’t know why they have an apple product and can’t figure out why they are constantly getting bombarded with different feline species when they supposedly bought a computer…

  • Anonymous

    I never realized reaching 10% of a molehill faster than 10% of a mountain was something to brag about.

  • Anonymous

    How are statistics this bad even legal?? Apple’s graphs are horrible

  • A.

    Ha ha you guy’s are incredible.  “Microsoft also distributed Windows 7 to business and consumer markets at
    the same time. Apple primarily distributes their systems to consumer
    markets which typically do not have to wait to upgrade”  i.e. MS hit a BIGGER MARKET.  Sure they might not have wanted to upgrade straight away but it wasn’t the Business market INSTEAD of the consumer one, it was AS WELL as so that is no excuse.  And the fact downloading was an option for Windows 7 proves downloads are not the problem.

    • MyNameHere

      Yea you don’t quite understand what is going on here. It also looks like Tim “My RDF is bigger than Steve’s” Cook were talking directly to *you*.

      These kinds of statistics are specifically aimed at people that are easily fooled.

      Apple essentially lost the desktop war. I guess now they’d say whatever little they can to make it look like they are still relevant on the desktop. Not sure why though, SJ said this is the Post-PC era. Oh wait, would the Mac somehow be exempt from this desktop implosion?

  • Anonymous

    Never trust percentages unless there are some numbers to go along with it. Even then, statistics can be manipulated by choosing what you are counting to get a result you need.

  • Ghahahh

    Wow, someone’s a bit butthurt

    • Anonymous

      But can you really blame Apple for being butthurt? I mean after all this time they can’t even gain 1/4 of the desktop market.

  • Moodsman

    Apple statistics, just as trustworthy as the US government.

  • Anonymous

    This is the first time I’ve seen someone brag about being small. I Microsoft can reach 50% Mango conversion by 2 weeks.

  • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

    Very underwhelming keynote.  I listened to coverage of it and even those guys were bored and making fun of it.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of the BUILD presentation though.  With Jobs gone they need to ‘re-imagine’ their presentations.  Cook =/= Jobs.

  • Anonymous

    Tom… What an article… 

    “Apple distributed Lion exclusively via digital downloads.”
    “Apple’s download only option clearly accelerated the adoption of OS X Lion alongside a marketing effort to make users aware of the download only option.”

    How can you nitpick about Apple using a distribution method that obviously works? You’re simply validating their decision to use digital vs physical distribution. The point of distributing software is to get it in people’s computers, not to fill shelves in stores, which is mainly what physical distribution does.

    Will you downplay the success of Windows Marketplace app installations when they quickly overtake boxed software sales?

    “Microsoft also distributed Windows 7 to business and consumer markets at the same time. Apple primarily distributes their systems to consumer markets which typically do not have to wait to upgrade.”

    What exactly prevents businesses from purchasing from “consumer markets”?

    Every Windows upgrade is a complicated affair with numerous options to consider, and other necessary preparation requirements, like driver downloads, etc. All this leads to major hesitation when MS releases a new OS, and is probably the main reason that XP is still in use on about half of all PCs.

    The Mac OS installer tell you if you can upgrade, and why if you can’t. If you can, it’s a simple click, wait scenario.

    If the Windows upgrade method was “Click, done” as it is with Apple’s OSes, the adoption rate would surely have been higher. Price also helps, but Leopard was quickly adopted too.

    • Guest

      Chill out, itard.

    • Anonymous

      The point of that graph wasn’t to showcase digital distribution models and you know it. They were cherry picking numbers that make their company look better. They couldn’t show total number of Lion users vs w7. So, they used percentages instead to shows greater percentage adoption over a shorter period even though their installed based is considerably smaller.

    • Anonymous

      Did they not state later in the demonstration that they were on their way to having 60 million Mac users worldwide? It seems quite clear that they, stating 10% adoption rate, and 60 million Mac users worldwide, were hiding nothing at all.

      If you had paid attention to the presentation, you would have noticed that. It was quite clear, with a keynote slide and all…

    • Anonymous

      Did they say that microsoft has 400 million (or something like that) users worldwide? I did pay attention and notice most of the slides in the beginning used misleading percentages that made them look good, but in context with actual numbers with not be impressive at all. There were only a few actual numbers in areas were the have a clear lead. In areas where they are close or losing, they use percentages.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t understand why you (or anyone here or that matter) say they were misleading. nothing they said was nonfactual. The main point of the Lion adoption rate was that digital distribution works. It was not about Lion beating Windows 7 in actual units installed. Nobody ever said that.

      Tell me though. Was the adoption RATE of Windows 7 at launch greater than the Lion adoption rate? Not number of units sold. Adoption rate.

      Think about how many times you hear about a company being the “fastest growing” in its sector. It’s a commonly used business metric.

      Las Vegas was the “fastest growing” city in the US for years. Is it the largest city in America? No. Will it ever be the largest city? Unlikely. Was it the fastest growing city? Yes. Rate of population increase (%), not population count (units). Stop confusing the two.

  • Avatar Roku

    Microsoft has sold over 450 million copies of Windows 7 vs. only 6 million copies of OS X Lion. Its a lot easier to reach 10% of 60 million Mac users than it is to reach 10% of 1 billion Windows users. This chart is absolutely ridiculous spin.

  • http://twitter.com/abdhoms Abdulla Moh. Saeed

    Guys chill out….Consider this IF statement 

    if (Steve is not coming, iPhone 5 is not going to born){
    so there is no point of choosing Apple as our partner();
    }
    else if (Tim Cook continues to give such boring keynotes){
    iPhone will be off from Markets in coming years();
    }

  • Avatar Roku

    Funny thing to note the amount that Winrumors just got wrong 450 million Windows 7 users (according to BUILD keynote) not 400 million as they say in this article, is almost the equivalent of total Mac users.

  • http://twitter.com/michaelantj Michael James

    This infuriated when i was following engadgets live blog, i hate when apple do this to make themselves look good, 6% of the market doesn’t compare to 87%, neither does market growth with these percentages

    • His Shadow

      Math infuriates you? You must be a laugh riot at a cash register.

    • http://twitter.com/michaelantj Michael James

      lol :P

  • Penta2100

    I just like apple for thier hardware specs. I wanna get one so I can dual boot with windows.

    • Anonymous

      I hope you mean design and not specs, because their specs are mid-range.  You can get much better for cheaper with a pc.

  • Leonick

    “Apple’s download only option clearly accelerated the adoption of OS X Lion alongside a marketing effort to make users aware of the download only option.”
    So basically you’re saying Apple made a better job at marketing and distribution, therefor these numbers are unfair… Right…

    • Anonymous

      No.  Apple is saying 6 million downloads is staggering.  He is saying it isn’t because they offered it as download only.  There is nothing unfair about what Apple said, they just try to bend and obscure the truth,  their 23% growth is about as much as Windows 7 was selling in a week.    MS sold more copies of Windows 7 in a month than Apple has sold of OSX in 3 years. 

  • Justfortherecord

    Tim Cook looks like a imitation Steve Jobs…anyone else think so?

  • Anonymous

    OS X LION $30

    Windows 7 $120

    • Anonymous

      FAIL. OS X can only legally be installed on Mac hardware. Windows 7 can be installed on a 100 different PCs.

    • Anonymous

      im a windows fan

    • Anonymous

      The whole “Lion is cheaper than Windows so it is better” argument is common from Apple fans so I can see how he made the mistake.

    • Anonymous

      AND Macs!

    • Luke

      Im glad Microsoft dosent make us pay for glorified service packs… 

    • https://profiles.google.com/christopher.gull/ CG

      OSX works on a handful of devices = compatibility skills a baby could handle.
      Windows 7 works on so many handfuls I can’t even tell you = compatibility skills only God himself should possess.

    • Anonymous

      Wrong!

      Based on the delta in price of comparable hardware from competitors like HP, Sony, etc
      OS X …. $600 + $30.00 per update. 
      Windows 7 $120 + $0.00 for any service packs for the next 10 years.

    • Anonymous

      I was trying to say that ms gets more money

    • http://twitter.com/JairJy Jair Jaramillo

      Lion is only available on the Mac App Store. That means you must use OSX to buy Lion, and you must use Snow Leopard. The only way you can get OSX is by buying a Mac, so do the math:
      Mac with Leopard + 30 bucks for Lion.

      This also means that Lion is just a Service Pack. You can install Windows 7 on an empty machine, but you must use Snow Leopard to install Snow Leopard Service Pack “Lion”.

  • Anonymous

    Everything aside Apple did a hell of a job with the Siri.. Wp7′S Tell me is good  but Siri takes it to the next level.. That’s one good thing about Apple they take their time to perfect something .  Hopefully MS will improve TellMe to match the Siri With wp8

    • Guest

      Let’s wait for some actual use feedback and not Apple demos. Speech recognition is notoriously unreliable once you introduce ambient sounds, accents, etc.

    • Anonymous

      Amen to that! When I saw the demo of the dude jogging and using voice commands so effortlessly I chuckled! Ah! If everything worked as well as the slides and demos would like us to believe!

      One thing that caught my attention though was the dual antenna design. Interesting enough Apple had a chance to go back and redesign the iPhone 4 antenna but opted to not do that instead they introduced a second antenna that if I am understanding correctly kicks in when the first one becomes problematic! Did I interpret that correctly?

  • Luke

    6 M wow but then again Microsoft’s windows 8 beta got that kinda figure just goes to show our dev crowd is bigger than there entire audience….

  • Guest

    So Cook plans to be just as much of a dickhead as Jobs? Good to know.

  • Cjw

    Someones butthurt…

  • Brichardster

    So Apple because Apple is ahead of the game & moving to download only, they shouldn’t put up the figures?

    It’s called competition.

  • Dan

    Ahh who cares. I like my Mac and my PC. Pie charts give me no interest

  • http://www.mainstreetchatham.com/ JimmyFal

    The Apple distortion field is in full on Tetrahedral Levitation mode. Those graphs and statistics are a Harry Potter esc combination of Magic AND Fantasy. I would be embarrassed if Microsoft behaved like that on stage. Apple has NO class. That was so cheap. I feel dirty after listening to those stats. Seriously man.

  • http://neilnuttall.wordpress.com/ Neil Nuttall

    I though it was closer to 83.7% of all stats were made up

  • His Shadow

    The adoption rate is the rate of adoption as a function of the number of adopters as compared to the installed base. The size in absolute numbers is used to derive the percentage. The chart clearly shows that Mac users adopted the latest OS faster than their PC counterparts. That’s it. There is no “lie” here or misleading statement. You want to argue that the rate of adoption for Win 7 is slower due to enterprise adoption practices or the difference between consumer and enterprise markets, that’s fine. But the mere fact that there are more Win 7 licenses sold than Lion licenses does not change the rate of adoption statistic.

  • Anonymous

    deleted double post

  • phil jay

    shitty comparisions all the way… win 7 is years old, lion is new.

  • http://twitter.com/j_the_geek J

    Wonder if that chart was made in Excel :P

  • Eberton Konieczny Sobreira

    And everyone around the worlds is mocking Apple for its frustrating phone. A whole conference for nothing. No one like this iPhone 4S, only Apple fanboys.