"We are very excited to be launching Mac OS Lion tomorrow," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told reporters and analysts during a conference call on Tuesday, when discussing his company's most-recent financial results [1].

If you plan to install "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty" on Wednesday, do remember to first upgrade Snow Leopard [2] to version 10.6.8. And do let us know if your download helped grind the Mac App Store to a halt as millions of Mac users attempt to simultaneously download what's sure to be a hefty package.

During the call, Oppenheimer also alluded to what he called a "future product transition" in response to a question about why he was projecting less than expected and less than seasonal revenues for Apple's next fiscal quarter, ending in September.

"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," he said with emphasis, "and these things will impact our September quarter."

With his emphatic not, Oppenheimer shut the door on any discussion as to what that "transition" might be. One can assume, however, that the oft-rumored iPhone 5 is the speculative front-runner.

But speculation as to whether the iPhone 5 will be joined by a lower-priced sibling may have been given a bit of juice when one analyst reminded Apple COO Tim Cook, also on the call, that recent surveys have shown that the iPhone lost market share year-on-year in the UK, Germany, France, and Japan, and that many market projections show that sales of smartphones over $300 are going to grow "a lot slower" than less-expensive phones worldwide.

"Share gain is important," Cook admitted. "Anywhere where we're going the opposite way, we're not happy and you can bet that we're working hard to change that."