Apple's latest desktop operating system Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion took a 32 percent share of internet traffic coming from all Apple computers in December. It is the first time the OS pulled ahead of previous versions of OS X in the rankings, signaling that Apple is gaining more Mac users. It took OS X Mountain Lion five months to accomplish the same results that it took its predecessor Mac OS X 10.7 Lion to achieve in 10 months.

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Netmarketshare's report shows Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion had 32 percent of all Internet traffic originating from a Mac, followed by Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with 29 percent, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion reporting 28 percent of traffic.

To upgrade a Mac to Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion through Apple's Mac App Store, you need to have Mac OS X 10.7 installed on the computer. Previous versions of the OS cannot download the $19.99 upgrade. This shows Apple is seeing users upgrade their Mac from Lion to Mountain Lion at a quicker rate.

Three days after its release in July, Apple announced that Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion had been downloaded three million times in four days, making it the most successful OS X release in Apple's history. Apple has moved to a yearly cycle of releasing major OS X versions just like it has been doing with iOS. That is one possible reason for the faster growth of Mountain Lion. With each new release of OS X, Apple has been adding features found in iOS to OS X. It has been blurring the lines between features found in iOS and OS X, making it more appealing for new customers to move to a Mac since they feel very familiar with the OS found on their iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Microsoft has followed Apple's example with the release of Windows 8, which features a similar look and feel to its mobile OS Windows Phone.

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