The company takes point-of-sales system data from 2,200 retailers across the country and uses that to estimate nationwide sales. About 200 people lined up in light rain to buy the software at Apple's store in the ritzy Ginza district of Tokyo, reports InfoWorld. 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 other sales of other operating systems including Mac OS X 10.4, Apple had an overall 60.7 percent share of the market in October. InfoWorld says that's a big jump from the 15.5 percent share it had in September, which was itself the highest share Apple had managed to get so far in 2007.

"While some of the kick from the launch has started to wear off, Apple remains in top place in the Japanese operating system market in November," InfoWorld adds. "For the week of Nov. 6 to Nov. 12 the single-user license of Leopard had a 40.4 percent share. The nearest competitor was Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition SP2, which had a 10.5 percent share."