Coming Soon To A Mac Near You: Mac OS X ‘Lion’

The cat is out of the bag (so to speak). Apple’s attention and focus is moving from iOS devices back to the future. The Mac and OS X are about to get some attention.

If a cat has nine lives, Apple’s newest Mac cat is #8. What’s the occasion? Apple has announced a Back to the Mac event to launch the next OS cat in OS X’s string of cats. What kind of cat? Roar!

The Lion Is King Of The Jungle

This one is an absolute no brainer, perhaps the easiest hint Apple has ever tossed out prior to a major company event. In the past year or so, Mac and OS X have been ignored by Apple while iOS and iDevices have played to standing room only customers on the big stage.

Apple’s invitation says it all. It’s Mac Magic Trackpad gray.

The Apple logo is like a single, center-hinged door which is slightly opened to reveal the new cat behind. Roar! Again.

The title of the event is Back to the Mac. What more do you need to know. Oh, the date. Apple will present Back to the Mac on October 20th at Apple’s Town Hall building in Cupertino, CA.

What more proof do you need that the next version of Mac OS X, 10.7, will be yet another in Apple’s 10 year string of cats?

Based upon the image of the lion behind the swiveling Apple logo on the invitation, I’m willing to crawl out on a digital limb and call Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Maybe it’ll be Lion King (thanks to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ connection to Disney). Maybe just Lion. But a Mac cat for sure.

Whatever it is, Lion or otherwise, Mac OS X 10.7 will be the next and future king of Mac hardware. Will it be a Prince Simba or King Mufasa?

The invitation also says:

…see what’s next for the Mac on October 20, including a sneak peak of the next major version of Mac OS X.

Including? That means more than just the next Mac OS, right? Will there be a “one more thing?”

For one more thing aficionados, Steve Jobs might have a couple of more things.

My expectations center around the in-short-supply MacBook Air, which is long overdue for a facelift. And, iLife ‘11, Apple’s sweet suite of Mac apps, updated—and just in time for the holidays. Oh, there’s always iWork, too. Maybe with a sync to iWork on iPad. iLikes.

What can Apple do to the lowly MacBook Air? Smaller, lighter, less expensive, come to mind. It’s also an opportunity to point the Mac toward the future of touch. Perhaps OS X Lion King will have more built-in touch screen capability. Perhaps the MacBook Air will have a touch screen and a built-in, slide out keyboard.

See what too much chocolate does? It gives you weird dreams of the future.

Regardless, October 20th is the date, 10:00 AM Pacific is the time, Mac OS X’s next in line cat is the Mac’s future. And one or two or maybe three more things. When will Lion see the light of day? I expect it to show up on new Macs some time in mid 2011; no sooner, not much later. It’s a sneak peak. See? The swiveling Apple logo is sneaking you a peak of a Lion.

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