OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Release in Late July, May Coincide with iMac Refresh [Report]

A number of employees at a third-party firm specializing in technical support for Apple products are reporting that their employer has “imposed” a vacation between July 22 and July 29 for an "all hands on deck" in its desktop and portables sector.

The event is to support an unspecified product release, MacRumors reports, and speculation is already (and justifiably) mounting around the imminent launch of Apple’s OS X version 10.8 aka Mountain Lion.

Not only that, but this company’s staff may be acquainted with some updated Macintosh computers too, according to the speculative report.

Apple did this when OS X 10.7 (Lion) was released last year, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to see the company fill the gap following the WWDC keynote, which featured only MacBook upgrades.

While the iMac and Mac mini are next in line to get hardware upgrades - including faster Ivy Bridge CPUs, more RAM and storage, as well as new USB 3.0 connectors - the all-in-one iMac is not expected to feature a Retina display upgrade, like the all-new MacBook Pro unveiled two weeks ago.

Instapaper developer Marco Arment has heard from his sources that Apple is, indeed, refreshing the iMac later this year.

However, it will not come equipped with a higher-density Retina display, he said:

“I’ve now heard from multiple sources that while an iMac update is indeed coming this fall, it will not have Retina displays,” were Arment’s exact words.

The Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. has already confirmed July as the release date for its next major upgrade to the Mac OS.

There is also some speculation that Mountain Lion will be released in the Mac App Store on July 19th.

Via: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Release in Late July, May Coincide with iMac Refresh [Report]