Apple has launched OS X Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of OS X, a desktop operating system for Mac computers.

OS X Mountain Lion, first officially announced by Apple on February 16, 2012 as a successor to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, comes with more than 200 new features including Facebook integration and several iOS features to the Mac.

In June, the company unveiled the software during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, when it offered more details about availability.

Mountain Lion includes iCloud integration, iMessage, a Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring and Game Center.

Apple Worldwide Marketing senior vice president Philip Schiller said people are going to love the new features in Mountain Lion and how easy it is to download and install from the Mac App Store.

"With iCloud integration, Mountain Lion is even easier to set up, and your important information stays up to date across all your devices so you can keep editing documents, taking notes, creating reminders, and continue conversations whether you started on a Mac, iPhone or iPad," Philip added.

OS X Mountain Lion replaces iChat with Messages, which includes support for iMessage, allowing users to send messages to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or another Mac.

Notification Center, a popular iOS feature, streamlines the presentation of notifications and provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps, the company said.

Additional features in Mountain Lion include the new Gatekeeper, anti-malware feature based on digital signatures and the Mac App Store.

It also includes the latest version of the Safari web browser, Safari 6 and Game Center- adopted from iOS as well as AirPlay Mirroring, which allows wireless mirroring of a Mac’s screen to an Apple TV.

Mountain Lion is available as a download from the Mac App Store and will cost $19.99 in the US.

Recently, a new Mac Trojan has been discovered by security company Intego, which is reported to be affecting computers running Snow Leopard and Lion.

The malware installs itself silently without the need for a password, and functions differently from the other Mac-targeted malware, like Flashback, that infected around 600,000 macs earlier this year.

In the company’s recent third quarter earnings release, Apple said Mac sales are on the rise at 4 million, a 2% increase over the year-ago quarter along with record sales of 17 million iPads.