SAN FRANCISCO: Apple announced Thursday that the new version of its Macintosh computer operating system was downloaded more than a million times in the 24 hours after it launched.

Apple on Wednesday unleashed its new Lion software, which boasts more than 250 added features including handling multi-touch controls.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement.

“Lion is a huge step forward, it's not only packed with innovative features but it's incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we've ever made.”

Sales of Macintosh computers dramatically outpaced the overall market in the recently-ended quarter and Lion is expected to further ramp up interest in Apple products.

Lion will be pre-installed on new Macintosh computers and is available for download as an update from the Mac App Store for dollar 30.