OS X Mavericks usage spikes past 10 percent across US and Canada

By Konrad Krawczyk Published October 30, 2013

Last week, Chitika claimed that OS X Mavericks usage made up of made up 5.5 percent of Mac OS X Internet traffic in the U.S. and Canada on its first day. Now, Chitika, an online advertising network, says that number has more than doubled.

According to Chitika’s data, it only took Apple’s newly released Mac OS X Mavericks five days to make up 11.8 percent of all Mac OS X Internet traffic seen over its ad network in the U.S. and Canada. By comparison, last year’s OS X Mountain Lion took five weeks to grab a 10.3 percent share.

What could account for quicker rate in new OS adoption? The significantly speedier adoption rate for OS X Mavericks compared to OS X Mountain Lion likely has something to do with the fact that Apple offers OS X Mavericks as a completely free download. That’s a radical departure not only from previous Apple OS X pricing models, but from Apple’s past policies on OS X pricing overall – though that’s not to say that Apple broke a pattern of charging high rates for its past OS X launches. OS X Mountain Lion was released last year for the reasonable rate of $20. Prior to that, OS X Lion was released with a price tag of $30. Compared to Windows 8.1, which you can grab on Newegg for $100, Mavericks is a steal. Even Windows 7, which was released roughly four years ago in 2009, is still sold for $100 and up depending on which version you grab.

In the end, $20 or $30 saved is $20 or $30 earned. We’re willing to bet that many users jumped on board simply due to the fact that Mavericks is a freebie. Regardless of the reason, it looks like Apple’s new pricing strategy is working.

Konrad Krawczyk

Former Computing Editor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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