Apple Mountain Lion expected to launch Wednesday

Apple is expected to launch Mountain Lion, the latest version of its Mac OS X, on Wednesday, according to a report.

The Cupertino, Calif., company said at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June that Mountain Lion would launch in July, but it did not give a firm date.

Now the website 9to5 Mac is saying that employees at a number of Apple Stores around the world have been scheduled for overnight hours next Tuesday, which indicates that Mountain Lion will launch the next day.

Apple is also scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings Tuesday, and 9to5 Mac expects the company to announce then that it will release Mountain Lion the next day. The news site says this is likely because Apple did the same thing last year with Lion: It released its earnings July 19, announcing the operating system’s launch date, and rolled out Lion on July 20.

9to5 Mac admits that some of the stores it contacted hadn’t heard of a Tuesday overnight meeting and that the earnings report’s timing may just be a coincidence. But, the site says, with less than two weeks left in July, a Wednesday release just seems like a good bet.

After launching 10 new MacBooks along with slightly improved Mac Pros at WWDC in June, Apple said it would give free Mountain Lion upgrades to anyone who bought a new Apple computer after June 11 from Apple or an authorized retailer.

Mountain Lion will be available for download from Apple’s Mac App Store for $19.99.

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