Apple has announced that the Mac OS X Lion will be released tomorrow, Thursday July 21 Australian time.

Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer finally ended weeks of speculation when he confirmed the release of the latest Apple OS at Apple's second quarter conference call. The Lion OS will be available in all Mac App Stores as a 4Gb download for $31.99. The server version will cost an additional $51.99.

The latest version of the OS will have over 250 new features including support for full-screen applications, more multitouch gestures, AirDrop for direct file sharing, auto save for app data, system-wide resume, and a app launcher much like that seen in the iOS. The Lion will also have an upgraded version of Mail with conversation view and reverse touchpad scrolling.

Mac users with a "qualifying" Mac version can get a free upgrade to the Lion as long as they claim it by August 30.

The Apple conference call also revealed that Apple was gearing for a "future product transition" to explain the less than expected Apple revenues for the next fiscal quarter.

"We have a lot going on in the fall, with the introduction of iOS 5 and iCloud. We also have a future product transition that we're not going to talk about today," Mr. Oppenheimer said, "and these things will impact our September quarter."

Mr. Oppenheimer also added that revenue for the Lion and iLife will be generated for the company for the next four years implying that there won't be any upgrades to the Mac OS X until 2015. Apple should also deliver new upgrades within the Lion OS during the time at no additional cost.

Customers who buy a Lion license will only have to pay $22 for software upgrade rights and iCloud services as estimated by Apple.