Feb 15, 2011 10:20 GMT  ·  By

References to Mac OS X Lion have emerged on Amazon.co.uk where several book listings indicate that Apple’s next-generation desktop OS is due out around mid-Summer.

MacNN reports that several book listings at Amazon.co.uk may indeed suggest that Lion will ship in late July or early August.

Despite the fact that Apple is yet to set an exact release date for the OS, books like Mac OS X Lion For Dummies and Mac OS X Lion All-in-One For Dummies are allegedly shipping on July 28th, the blog reports.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A quick search for “mac os x lion” on the UK Amazon web site will also turn up a Mac OS X Lion Bible and Teach Yourself Visually Mac OS X Lion, both due on July 29th.

Finally, Mac OS X Lion Portable Genius is targeted at August 5th, and Mac OS X Lion Simplified is scheduled for August 26th, MacNN observes.

Amazon listings have accurately indicated new Apple product launches or refreshes in the past, though not always.

Moreover, Apple is already known to plan the proper introduction of Mac OS X Lion this summer.

Whether or not Apple will actually release the desktop OS to the public, rather than give a developer showcase alongside a potential beta seed (as it did with Snow Leopard), remains to be seen.

Apple is still actively testing Mac OS X 10.6.7 builds, the most recent of which bears identical seed notes to at least two previous seeds.

These details strongly indicate that Apple is wrapping up development on Snow Leopard, ironing out any small bugs they may have overlooked, in order to shift all development resources over to OS X Lion.