OS X Lion downloaded one million times on day one, is fastest selling Mac OS ever

Apple’s OS X Lion is off to an amazing start with one million copies of the operating system being downloaded on day one. These are all downloads from the Mac App Store and user feedback has been tremendous so far, as we noted yesterday. In just its first day, 90% of customers gave OS X Lion a five star Mac App Store review.

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.

According to Apple, people are buying Lion faster than any other operating system in the world. This not only proves how great the Mac App Store is for desktop software distribution, but proves how vital Apple’s $29.99 price point is. This is nearly the same price as Snow Leopard last year, an operating system that was based around under the hood improvements. On the other hand, for the same price, Lion delivers 250 new features like Launchpad, Mission Control, an all-new mail application, and Multi-Touch gesture across the operating system.

Apple has not announced, specifically, how many people bought OS X Snow Leopard, so we don’t have much comparison for that. On the other hand, Apple sold two million copies of OS X Leopard (10.5) in its debut weekend. Leopard was sold exclusively on discs online, at Apple Stores, official resellers and had pre-orders. The announcement in its entirety is after the break.

CUPERTINO, California—July 21, 2011—Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Available through the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99 (US), users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s 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.”

Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

Available in 123 countries, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is built right into Lion and available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X version 10.6.8.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.