Mac OS X 10.7 Lion set to go live for all at WWDC?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 30 May 2011 22:18

Your IT - Home IT

Although Apple's WWDC will be showcasing Mac OS X 10.7 'Lion', iOS 5.0 and perhaps even an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, it could instead also see OS X Lion roaring into life early, unleashing what could be a powerful boost to sales of Apple's Mac computers.

With Apple able to own and/or directly control the production of its hardware and software so masterfully, and with the merging of iPad OS elements into Mac OS X itself in OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple fans are set to be in for quite a ride at this year's WWDC.

UPDATE: MAY 31, 2011 - Apple has officially announced that WWDC 2011 will showcase the new Mac OS X Lion, the new iOS 5.0, and a new service called iCloud, presumably set to make all those wireless syncing and cloud iTunes dreams come true. We don't yet know, however, whether Apple will introduce any of its services immediately, or if they will be introduced "in the near future" - we'll just have to wait until the actual WWDC announcement to find out!

Original story continues below:

As always, Apple aims to excel and produce a spectacular show, backed up by actual hardware and software advances and improvements.

With Mac sales growing, the iPad 2 still hard to get at retail and yet selling by the bucketload, the successful iPhone 4 soon to be succeeded by an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 and Microsoft's Windows 8 nowhere in sight, 2011 could be Apple's most pivotal year.

The magic will be in how well Apple manages to integrate the iPad experience into Mac OS X, and the imminent WWDC event set to unveil Lion's secrets - and if TUAW's rumours are to be believed - the surprise 'early' WWDC availability of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion itself.

A combination of Mac OS X and the iPad iOS also suggests a future MacBook with full keyboard and touchpad along with full multi-touch screen. Perhaps the screen and keyboard will be seamlessly detachable and attachable, and available as a distinct device to the iPad.

Perhaps the two will merge. Hopefully WWDC explains more, but OS X 10.7, has to work with current non-touchscreen Intel-based Macs, so touch-screen Macs may not be coming just yet.

We do know, however, thanks to various online reports including that of TUAW, which shows the latest build of Mac OS X 10.6.8 and its pre-installation notice.

There's a key line about 'enhancing the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion' - details on page two, please read on!