Apple late Wednesday evening began advising members of its retail segment of several preparatory measures ahead of an expected launch of its Mac OS X Lion operating system next week, which other partners say will be followed closely by the launch of much-anticipated refreshes to the company's MacBook Air notebook family.



From Apple Insider:

For example, one person with access to the company's internal retail news network told AppleInsider that a new bulletin posted to the system this week is advising store management to perform RAM upgrades to certain Mac models on the showroom floors by Sunday, July 10th at the latest -- presumably in preparation for those models to be upgraded with Lion shortly thereafter.

This same person also mentioned hearing rumors from colleagues that Apple may formally invite some customers to its retail locations to download the new OS from within the store so that they can receive assistance in becoming familiar with some of Lion's more prominent enhancements.

  Apple retail plans, sources point to Mac OS X Lion launch next week