“Although Apple has done a better job of moving its Mac users along with each new operating system than has rival Microsoft, the Cupertino, Calif. company has been unable to eradicate fragmentation as it accelerated upgrades to an annual cadence,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
“According to data from analytics firm Net Applications, three OS X editions that were three years or older retained five or more percentage points of user share last month,” Keizer reports. “Those three editions — 2009’s Snow Leopard, 2011’s Lion and 2012’s Mountain Lion — powered 20% of all Macs in April. When 2007’s Leopard was included, the number climbed to 21.3%.”
“There’s no question that Apple’s policy of giving away its OS X upgrades — a practice begun in 2013 with Mavericks — has reduced fragmentation by pulling Mac owners onto the newest edition faster than did versions that carried a price tag. The current OS X Yosemite, for example, accounted for 57.5% of all Macs in April, 23 percentage points higher than where Mountain Lion stood at the same point in its post-launch timeline,” Keizer reports. “Windows is much more fragmented than is OS X, of course: As of April, about 17% of all Windows PCs ran 2001’s Windows XP, more than the share of Windows 8/8.1, Microsoft’s newest OS. And unlike Apple’s most popular edition, Microsoft’s was 2009’s Windows 7, which accounted for 64% of all in-use Windows versions.”
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MacDailyNews Take: 6 out of 10 Macs run Apple’s most current OS. 8 out 10 Macs run the two most current OSes (OS X 10.10 Yosemite or OS X 10.9 Mavericks). 1.1 out of 10 Windows PCs run Microsoft’s most current OS. 1.4 out of 10 Windows PCs run the two most current OSes (Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.0).