Mountain Lion becomes most successful OS X release in history

Remember the days when a new OS would cost you a three-figure sum? If not, you may be surprised to hear that Apple’s low-cost OS X Mountain Lion has put in the sort of sales sprint that would make other OS manufacturers blush.

The ninth version – 10.8 to its friends – of Apple’s OS was downloaded over three million times in four days, smashing previous records and earning Mountain Lion the accolade of “the most successful OS X release in Apple’s history.” It also (understandably) wreaked havoc with Apple’s servers on the day of launch.

The new OS brings iOS-like (or should we say smartphone-like?) notifications to Apple’s desktop platform, plus deeper sharing options, unified messaging and AirPlay Mirroring. We’ll be bringing you a full review to tell you whether three million people can be wrong very shortly.