Apple’s new Leopard operating system accounted for over half of all sales of packaged operating system software in Japan in October — despite being on sale for only the last six days of the month.
OS X Leopard, which is the first major update to the Apple operating system in more than two years, took a 53.9% share of the market, according to figures from Japan’s BCN.
The company takes point-of-sales system data from 2,200 retailers across the country and uses that to estimate nationwide sales.
The single-user license version, which costs ¥14,700 (NZ$174), accounted for a 46% while the five-user “family pack,” which has a ¥22,700 price tag, had a 7.9% share.
The software went on sale worldwide on October 26 with sales kicking off at 6pm local time in each country. Users in New Zealand and Australia got their hands on Leopard first, but Tokyo saw the first launch at an Apple retail store. About 200 people lined up in light rain to buy the software at Apple’s store in the ritzy Ginza district of Tokyo. Lines also formed at other Apple stores across the country and at major electronics retailers, where special events were held to mark the start of sales.
Combined with sales of other operating systems including Tiger, Apple had an overall 60.7% share of the market in October — a big jump from the 15.5% share it had in September, which was itself the highest share Apple had managed to get so far in 2007.