Instead, the operating system was said to be available exclusively as a download from the Mac App Store for US$29.99. Īpple did not initially announce any physical media distribution for Lion, such as a set of CD-ROMs or a DVD-ROM as used for past releases. The specific release date of July 20 was not confirmed until the day before, July 19, by Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, as part of Apple's 2011 third-quarter earnings announcement. On June 6, 2011, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, it was announced that the official release for Lion would be in July 2011. By October 2011, Mac OS X Lion had sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

Apple reported over 1 million Lion sales on the first day of its release. Lion achieved golden master status on July 1, 2011, followed by its final release via the Mac App Store on July 20, 2011.

Other developer previews were subsequently released, with Lion Preview 4 (11A480b) being released at WWDC 2011. On February 24, 2011, the first developer's preview of Lion (11A390) was released to subscribers of Apple's developer program. It brings many developments made in Apple's iOS, such as an easily navigable display of installed applications, to the Mac, and includes support for the Mac App Store, as introduced in Mac OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6.6.

Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7 marketed as OS X Lion) is the eighth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Ī preview of Lion was publicly unveiled at Apple's 'Back to the Mac' event on October 20, 2010.

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