as the likely launch data for OS X 10.8, known as Mountain Lion, based on 's actions last year, when it debuted the predecessor, OS X Lion, the day after the company's second-quarter earnings call.
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, announced the release date during the early minutes of that earnings call with Wall Street analysts Tuesday. Oppenheimer did not name a time Wednesday for Mountain Lion's release.
Last year, to its Mac App Store in the early morning of July 20.
Although Apple said that it would ship Mountain Lion in July, it had declined to set a date.
Apple provided a of Mountain Lion -- the label some developers use for software that has been completed and is ready to ship -- on July 9, but did not offer a follow-up.
Mountain Lion requires a Mac with an Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 or Xeon processor, although ; 2GB of memory; 8GB of available space; and Lion or Snow Leopard. Users running Snow Leopard must update to OS X 10.6.8, the most-recent version -- released in late June 2011 -- before they can upgrade to Mountain Lion.
Like 2011's Lion, Mountain Lion will be available only via download from the Mac App Store.
, a 33% discount from Lion's price.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . His email address is .
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in Computerworld's Mac OS X Topic Center.