While Apple only rarely releases official figures on OS adoption rates, there are ways to find out, roughly speaking, through third-party surveys of Web activity. The sampling may not be as exact, say, as a Gallup Poll, but the numbers ought to show rough trends.

One of those tracking firms, Net Applications, analyzes data from unique visitors to roughly 40,000 sites. The stats reflect the OS those visitors are using, and it focuses largely on percentages rather than estimated total users.

Based on that and similar surveys, we know that Windows 7 recently became the most popular OS on that platform, finally beating Windows XP, which was released in the fall of 2011. In the scheme of things, such figures demonstrate that Microsoft has failed to deliver a compelling case for the enterprise to upgrade to the latest and greatest versions of Windows. The situation might even be worse with Windows 8, which changes the traditional look and feel big time. It’s hard to believe businesses would take the risk and undergo heavy retraining costs to bring employees up to speed without a proven net benefit.

Now by making Mountain Lion a fairly trivial upgrade from Lion, at a $19.99 upgrade price, it’s clear Apple made a move that would encourage as many Mac users as possible to upgrade. According to  Net Applications, some 22.3% of Mac users had upgraded to OS 10.8 as of September, a tad over two months after release. This is essentially the same percentage of Mac users who upgraded to Lion within two months of its release.

However, it appears that growth has slowed considerably, with Mountain Lion’s increase in September estimated at half the adoption rate as Lion in its second month. Or maybe the early adopters have already spoken.

Overall, Lion and Snow Leopard (10.6) get a 32.7% share, each. Leopard receives less than 10% of the OS X market share, but that number will probably continue to decline slowly as Mac users upgrade their computers. Simple OS upgrades are difficult, since most users of 10.5 cannot upgrade to Lion or Mountain Lion because of the heftier system requirements.

But lets look at the slowing adoption rate. Does that mean that Mac users aren’t satisfied with Mountain Lion? That’s hard to say, as the Net Applications survey deals strictly with numbers that may only indicate approximate trends. Customer preferences aren’t being surveyed.

It’s also true that, over time, Mountain Lion’s growth will be largely confined to the sale of new Macs. Mac users can usually only downgrade if their computers shipped with an older OS. Besides, it’s not as if OS 10.8 would seem to present problems for Lion users, other than a few compatibility issues with third-party software.

So it would appear the Mountain Lion adoption rate doesn’t differ all that much from previous versions of OS X. On the other hand, what is normal for Apple may not be normal for some tech pundits who will try to put a bad spin on the situation. They might suggest that Mac users aren’t happy with Mountain Lion and are thus avoiding it like the plague, despite the fact that customer reaction seems as positive as any recent OS X release.

I’ve heard similar grumblings about iOS 6. Apple announced within days after the upgrade came out that some 100 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users had upgraded. That’s an incredibly high adoption rate, considering that some 400 million iOS devices have been activated over the years. But the upgrade is free and easy to manage and, so far at least, Apple’s mapping problems appear to be the main potential impediment, although nothing stops you from downloading a third-party mapping app if you prefer.

It’s not as if there’s compelling evidence that the adoption rate fell off the cliff after the first few days, although the numbers would surely flatten to some degree. At the same time, older Apple mobile gear won’t be able to upgrade to iOS 6. If your iPhone is predates the 3GS, you have a first generation iPad, or an iPod touch older than the fourth generation model, you cannot upgrade. Even on supported hardware, the earlier models lose some features, which surely lessens the incentive to switch.

Apple will be announcing Q4 2012 earnings on October 25. You’ll know how many iPhone 5s were sold through September 30, and there may even be some additional information on the Mountain Lion and iOS 6 adoption rate. It’s premature to make assumptions that OS 10.8 is not doing so well, or that, after the initial 100 million installations, interest in iOS 6 died. Indeed, there’s yet another survey, from Onswipe, a Web conversion provider, indicating that nearly 60% of iPhones have already upgraded to iOS 6.

Certainly if Apple’s revenue isn’t quite as good as analysts might expect, there may be reason for concern. When Apple didn’t move as many iPhones in the June quarter as some analysts expected, Apple’s stock took a temporary dip. It happened yet again when Apple announced they had only sold five million copies of the iPhone 5 as of the first weekend on sale, even though it was quite clear that Apple ran out of stock early.

It’s easy to suggest that Apple is in trouble, but those who are trying to find evidence for that condition appear to be grasping at straws. Yes, the Mapgate affair is a legitimate concern, but, as the Maps database is expanded and repaired, even that controversy will die down soon enough.

I suppose if you believe what currently passes for conventional wisdom in the tech media, Apple was moving along perfectly in recent years until the Mapgate debacle. The iPhone, the iPad, the iPod and the Mac were all running just peachy, OS X and the iOS were free of errors, all until Apple failed to deliver a credible mapping system to replace Google Maps.

As I said in my previous column, the mapping errors are easy to demonstrate. A few screenshots comparing the Apple to Google version, and the point is crystal clear. In passing, it is reported that an ad from Google’s Motorola division erroneously claims that Apple’s Maps was wrong about a destination in New York City, except that the address actually points to a public park. Or maybe the address applies to the public restrooms.

Regardless, few dispute the contention that the maps problem is real, but it’s also clear that Apple will be working overtime to fix the worst problems. If only it had a beta label, but that didn’t stop people from complaining about Siri’s voice recognition accuracy, and it remains a beta.

But if you go back through Apple’s history, you’ll find a host of defective problems of one sort or another. Some appeared before Steve Jobs returned to the company, others appeared after.

Certainly Macs have been subject to extended repair programs from time to time. I recall the iMac G5, some of which were prone to power supply failures. More recently, Apple instituted a plan to replace 1TB Seagate hard drives on some iMacs shipped between May 2011 and July 2011, which are subject to early failures. Some 1st generation iPod nanos, sold between September 2005 and December 2006, are being replaced because a defective battery on some units may “overheat and pose a safety hazard.”

You can’t dispute Apple’s dedication to quality, but at the same time you cannot expect that all products will be perfect. That’s what product warranties are for, but these special programs deal with special conditions.

I also wonder if Apple should look at the repair record of the 2008 Black MacBook. My son had nearly every internal component, and part of the case, replaced at least once over the years. Now perhaps his situation is unique, but having hardware problems with any Apple product is not that unusual, even though most customers have great user experiences.

And don’t get me started about Antennagate.

When it comes to Apple software, you know there are bugs and missteps. Apple overhauled iMovie several years ago, but the previous or “HD” version was kept available. Customers complained that the new version was too different, and lacked key features that they had come to depend on. This situation repeated itself with the release of Final Cut Pro X. But since FCP is in wide use by professional video editors in the movie and TV industries, you can bet there were plenty of vocal complaints about the loss of key features and the huge changes in the way the program was meant to be used.

In releasing FCP X, Apple made the mistake of not preparing loyal users of the previous version that it was just the beginning. Missing features would, in large part, be restored, and, customers would, Apple hoped, learn to embrace it with the same passion as the previous version. The jury is still out whether Apple will regain lost customers, and convince fence sitters that FCP X is the superior app. Maybe it’s very much about changing things too much, a problem Microsoft could well encounter when Windows 8 comes out later this month.

With online services, Apple has continued to flounder. In the 1990s, they had eWorld, a consumer-level online service that was based on AOL technology. Later, .Mac, and MobileMe went through rocky existences. Today’s replacement, iCloud, shows plenty of promise, but there remain lots of rough edges. And when you encounter occasional email outages, as I did several weeks ago, you wonder if the service is anything you really want to depend on.

Over the years, releases of OS X and the iOS have been flawed. iOS 5, for example, seriously reduced battery life for people who owned the iPhone 4 or 4S. I know I encountered the problem, and it took a couple of updates to restore battery life to its former level. With iOS 6, some customers are complaining all over again about similar problems.

Although generally a pretty solid release, battery life problems afflicted at least some Mac note-book users when Mountain Lion arrived. Apple never officially admitted the problem, although they reportedly did reach out to affected customers for system logs to figure out what was going on. Benchmarks of the OS 10.8.1 update showed some improvement. With 10.8.2, battery life was supposedly restored to previous levels and then some. Yet there was nothing about battery life in the release notes, so maybe there will be more changes in 10.8.3.

I’ve only scratched the service. But it goes to show that Apple, despite the well-deserved reputation for product excellence, has had its share of missteps. Mapgate is but the latest example, and there will be others. But maybe some people are just expecting too much, which is why the defects seem more shocking.

When Apple demonstrated a new home-grown mapping feature for iOS 6 last June, I wonder how many expected how it would all turn out. Certainly it was clear why Apple made this move. It’s all about Apple’s soured relationship with Google, and the drive to dominate mobile platforms.

According to published reports, Apple wanted Google to add turn-by-turn navigation to their iOS mapping app. As negotiations soured, Apple was busy building Plan B, their own mapping service, which links to the data gathered by Tom Tom and other suppliers of navigation information.

You expect that the first version of any app, OS or service will have bugs. That’s how things are. But, after eight years of Google Maps, people expected a minimum level of quality. For all sorts of reasons, the flaws with the new mapping product were sometimes laughably obvious. It’s not just about melting bridges in the new Flyover viewing option, but missing destinations and landmarks, and sometimes putting a city in the wrong country.

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The freakout over Apple’s first Maps program has certainly created lots of headlines. The current meme: iOS 6 is good, but Maps — Mapgate if you will — is bad. Searches are questionable, directions may be wrong, and destinations and landmarks may be incorrectly labeled or misplaced by hundreds or thousands of miles. So why didn’t Apple just stick with Google and let them keep the user traffic?

Well, there’s a published report that has it that Apple tried, without success, to convince Google to add turn-by-turn navigation to the iOS version of Maps. This is a key differentiator, since that feature was already available to users of Android smartphones. It’s not that there weren’t third-party options, but it’s also quite possible Apple was losing business to Android partners because of this missing feature.

Apple’s decision reportedly came even though the Google contract had a year left. But I can’t for the moment believe that Apple was unaware of the problems with their own version of Maps. There’s a lot of good in the interface and feature set, but all those glitches! Had they existed in Google Maps, which does have its own share of shortcomings, though possibly not as many, I wonder how much media coverage it would have received. My experience with mapping services is that they are all imperfect to some degree. Consider getting turn-by-turn directions for a trip from my home to the Ballys casino/hotel in Las Vegas. Maps for iOS 6 came up with what was essentially a route I would have taken. Google Maps devised one that differed slightly for the last few miles, taking you to something called Donn Arden’s Jubilee, a show currently featured at Ballys. All right, it’s the same address, but a glitch is a glitch, and this one is Google’s fault.

On the other hand, Apple needs to hunker down and fix the most serious bugs as soon as possible, particularly the ones that are getting media attention. There is certainly a fairly simple way to report a problem in Maps. Tap the flap at the bottom right of the screen, and tap Report a Problem. You’ll be given options as to the category in which the bug report fits, and you’ll be able to report the issue you’re confronting in short order. It won’t go into a black hole, because crowdsourcing is essential to improving the service’s accuracy. But I couldn’t say how long it’ll take to get from problem report to the final resolution. Other than publicity, problems with the higher number of reports will obviously be handled first.

It’s also fairly obvious that iOS 6 is getting lower customer satisfaction scores. That over 100 million of you installed the update within days means that even relatively minor problems will get plenty of attention. But it’s also true that’s 100 million fewer users of Google’s mapping service, which has to hurt. They are even now reportedly trying to combine the code base of the mapping service and Google Earth, so they can quickly deliver a credible Web version in a few weeks.

By then, however, it’s very possible Apple will have fixed some of the more critical glitches with Maps. If anyone doubts Apple’s commitment make Maps world class, consider these statements from Tim Cook’s apology to customers: “Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.”

In a curious development for a publication that is no friend of Apple, Consumer Reports tested Maps for iOS 6 and Google Maps, reaching this conclusion: “Both the free Apple and Google navigation apps provide clear routing directions. Apple feels like a less-mature product. But as seen with the initial competing applications for the iPhone, we would expect updates to this new app over time–and Apple has promised as much. When getting down to the nitty gritty, Google provides a better overall package, but we feel that both provide a good solution for standard software. We expect the competition between the companies will benefit customers with ongoing improvements.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Apple has been dinged on a perceived shortcoming on an iPhone or the iOS. Do you remember the flap over the lack of Flash support? The competition jumped in and claimed that you couldn’t experience the full web on an iPhone or an iPad, because Flash was essential. Of course they neglected to tell you that the mobile versions of Flash were tremendously buggy, and that Web developers would have to make a lot of fixes to allow for touch navigation on many sites.

Now you might have forgotten some of the mobile Flash reviews on Android gear, but it was punctuated with complaints about slow performance and frequent crashes. Adobe cried crocodile tears about how Apple had betrayed them to advance their own agenda, but that agenda meant emphasizing an open Internet, with support for HTML5 rather than a buggy proprietary standard.

I recall my challenges to Adobe, that they demonstrate a version of Flash that worked reliably on the iPhone or iPad. I never saw a response, but I have to tell you that it has been decidedly more difficult to get review product from Adobe since I wrote those highly critical articles.

In any case, it was quickly demonstrated that Steve Jobs was right all along about Flash. Adobe has discontinued the mobile version, and is busy making their Web development tools work even better with industry standards. They aren’t going to ditch Flash anytime soon, and it’s certainly not easy for Web developers to switch because Flash is so entrenched on the Internet. In a few years, as older browsers that don’t fully support HTML5 are upgraded, the need for Flash will lessen. Web developers already have to confront the fact that there are 400 million iOS devices out there that will never run Flash, and that’s a great incentive to change things now.

As to Maps, I expect that, in another two or three months, as the complaints die down, you won’t hear so much about Apple’s problems, or whether they were too quick to get rid of Google. Yes, I suppose Google might have a full-fledged iOS mapping app by then, but it may just be too late to make that much of a difference.