After a year in which Apple has focused almost exclusively on its mobile platform, the company looks like it’s getting ready to turn its attention back to the Macintosh and its Mac OS X operating system: Apple has sent invitations to a special event October 20 at Apple’s campus in Cupertino.
Although the invitations aren’t very specific, it’s reasonable to assume the event will focus on Mac OS X and possibly new Macintosh hardware. The invitations include the text “Back to the Mac,” and promise a look at the “next major version of Mac OS X.” The invitations also feature a lion looking out from behind a swiveled Apple logo. The graphic implies the next major version of Mac OS X—presumably 10.7—will be codenamed “Lion.” Apple has named all major released of Mac OS X after large cats; Mac OS X 10.6 is “Snow Leopard,” which followed “Leopard” and “Tiger.”
The event will come none to soon for Macintosh enthusiasts, who have increasingly been seeing the Mac platform take a back seat to Apple’s mobile efforts, including the iPhone, iPod touch, and the iPad. This year’s Worldwide Developer Conference focused almost exclusively on Apple’s mobile platform, with barely any developer conference sessions on Apple’s core Mac OS X platform.
