Reports indicate that Apple retail stores have begun receiving Golden Master copies of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion with instructions to install the new software on display machines.According to several sources, Apple retail stores started receiving what is referred to as “final copies of OS X Lion” on Monday, July 18.
At least one
source said it could confirm that the GM builds arrived not on disks, not on USB thumb drives, but on hard drives.
Staffers were instructed to image Apple Retail demo computers on the store floor with OS X Lion.
For the past week, pretty much every major tech news outlet has taken a stab at the potential launch date of Apple’s new operating system.
Most recently, reports cite a very likely July 19th launch date, but that’s only because July 19th simply isn’t here yet.
Should Apple fail to deliver tomorrow, July 20th would begin to sound like a reasonable release date for OS X Lion, as will Friday, July 21st.
With that out of the way, we can confidently state that Apple is steadily moving towards the official launch of Lion, whether it’s let loose in the Mac App Store this week, or the next.
The preparations Apple has kicked off this week in its retail stores would indicate that it’s launching sooner, rather than later.
One of our readers appropriately points out in the comments for
“OS X 10.7 Lion Download Now Rumored for July 26” that it’s fairly possible Lion will be released on a Friday.
His argument is that all major OS X iterations starting with Panther (which was released on Friday 24th of October 2003) have dropped on a Friday.
Moreover, each and every release occurred on the last Friday of that month, whether it was April, August, or October.
Going by his theory, Lion should arrive not on July 22, but on July 29.
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