After months of build-up, the release of Apple's new operating system, OS X Lion, was always going to be big.

It seems even Apple is impressed, though, with more than one million people downloading the software on its first day of availability.

"Lion is off to a great start,” says Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing for Apple."User reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic.

Indeed, figures from Apple's app store show 9,451 have rated Lion, giving it an average of 4 ½ stars out of 5.The OS is available for download in New Zealand for $38.99.

Too much money?

In other Apple news, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple may have too much money.

Years of strong growth have seen the tech giant build up a US$76.2 billion cash reserve, and investors are reportedly saying that Apple should use it or return it to shareholders as dividends.

Apple's not alone, either, the WSJ continues, with Microsoft's cash reserves at US$60.9 billion, Cisco Systems at $43.4 billion and Google's at $39.1 billion.