Apple Retail Stores Making Preparations for OS X Lion Launch Next Week?

A pair of reports today are suggesting that Apple may be preparing its retail stores for a launch of OS X Lion next week, with MacBook Air and other hardware updates likely to follow alongside or soon after the new operating system debuts.

9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple has scheduled "overnights" for next Wednesday, July 13th, events where store layouts and promotional materials are tweaked and store management is briefed on new products. While the source offers no information on exactly what will take place during next week's overnights, it seems reasonable to guess that OS X Lion will be a focus of the changes.

os x lion advances even further
AppleInsider follows up with its own report also mentioning overnights scheduled for next week, although the source for that claim did not offer a specific day for the changes. In addition, sources for the report indicate that Apple is requiring that a number of display machines in its retail stores have their RAM upgraded by this Sunday, leading to speculation that Apple is topping them off in advance of the OS X Lion launch.

Separate sources for the report specifically indicate that Apple is preparing OS X Lion for a public launch next week, with revamped MacBook Airs potentially set for an introduction the following week. Retail sources have also indicated that Apple may be formally inviting some customers to download Lion at their local retail stores next week in order to receive assistance learning their way around the new operating system.

Beyond the MacBook Air, Apple appears to have a significant number of other Macs in line for refreshes, including the Mac mini, MacBook and Mac Pro. Other lines such as the MacBook Pro and iMac that have been updated more recently may also be seeing some stock shortages as Apple tries to make the conversion over to systems with Lion preinstalled.

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Top Rated Comments

devianter Avatar
180 months ago
It will be awesome to see the new hardware.
It will be awesome to see the new OSX crashing and burning like all recent Apple OSXs have done in their first months of release. I can almost guarantee that OSX 10.7 is about as ready to release as a fornicator thinking about Dr. Ruth.
You clearly haven't tried Lion golden master. I've been using it for about a week and haven't had ONE crash since. Nor did i find any significant bugs.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
*LTD* Avatar
180 months ago
It will be awesome to see the new hardware.
It will be awesome to see the new OSX crashing and burning like all recent Apple OSXs have done in their first months of release. I can almost guarantee that OSX 10.7 is about as ready to release as a fornicator thinking about Dr. Ruth.
Don't put any money on your guarantee.

I've been using DP4 as my main OS since its release. That is, I wiped my MBPs drive and did a clean install of Lion DP4. Daily OS, with all my files, all the apps I use, everything. I'm treating it as a full release every day. This is how you really test stuff. It isn't futzing around with a vanilla copy on a separate drive. Instead, it's about forgetting that it's a preview and relying on it every day while taking your chances. Not everyone is able to do this, but for those that are, they'll learn damn quick whether this is something that's ready for release.

It's extremely stable and there are no showstopper bugs (and my hardware isn't exactly new, either.) This is the general consensus.

If the GM is anything like this (an improvement over DP4, apparently) Lion will be damn-near flawless upon release.

This will be an extremely hard act for the competition to follow.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
devianter Avatar
180 months ago
One person does not make a safe bet for stability in the OS. Wait and see. I'd be amazed if Apple released an OSX that is perfect. It isn't even close to possible.
I'm really sorry to disappoint you, but it's working fine for almost everybody. Even better, i haven't seen anybody who have encountered serious problems with it. You are just trolling, sir.
P.S
Oh, and yes, i have a 2007 (the first aluminum iMac) and a 2009 mac mini.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sodner Avatar
180 months ago
It will be awesome to see the new hardware.
It will be awesome to see the new OSX crashing and burning like all recent Apple OSXs have done in their first months of release. I can almost guarantee that OSX 10.7 is about as ready to release as a fornicator thinking about Dr. Ruth.

Sorry to disappoint you but I have it on my Air and its running fine. :rolleyes:
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cleve Avatar
180 months ago
AppleInsider is pretty incredible. They took 9to5mac's report, made it more vague and about 10 pages longer without adding anything extra.

They should offer their services to people trying to write a long dissertation
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sodner Avatar
180 months ago
One person does not make a safe bet for stability in the OS. Wait and see. I'd be amazed if Apple released an OSX that is perfect. It isn't even close to possible.

Okay, now its a group of people telling you that you are wrong. :p
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)