With the international release of the iPad 2 well underway, thoughts are beginning to turn to what Apple could possibly have up its sleeves next.  One product that we know of already is the public release of OS X Lion in the early part of this summer.  If a new rumor is to be believed, it would appear that Apple should have no troubles meeting this deadline, as it appears the latest and greatest OS X could already be nearing "Golden Master" status.

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is almost set to release an OS X Lion update out to developers that they may be classifying as the "GM1" release.  Generally "GM" or "Golden Master" is usually a term that is used for software that is complete.  However, this is reportedly only the first Golden Master candidate, so don't expect to see it in public just yet.

Apple has continued to work through many OS X Lion bugs and other performance issues as the stated summer release date draws ever closer.  Just the same, if GM candidates are already nigh, then there should not be any cause to worry.

By comparison, with OS X Snow Leopard, Apple had released the GM edition to developers a few weeks for the actual public release.  If there are no bugs in the first GM version, then Apple could see a similar timeframe with Lion.  To give benefit of the doubt to Apple though, it would seem an early summer release would still be more likely - perhaps alongside WWDC?

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