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Mac OS X Lion will be available on USB thumb drive for $69 in August

For those who want to have their copy of Lion saved on a physical medium, Apple will make the Mac OS X upgrade available on a USB thumb drive through its online store in August, but at a cost more than twice the price of the Mac App Store.

Apple revealed on Wednesday that Lion will be available on a USB thumb drive through its online store "later this August." It will carry a price of $69, or more than twice the $29.99 cost of downloading Lion from the Mac App Store.

For users who do not have broadband access at home, work or school, Apple is also offering customers the ability to download the multi-gigabyte install at its retail stores immediately.

AppleInsider was first to report in May that Apple planned to release Lion through the Mac App Store, but also that Apple would offer a physical copy of the operating system for those who would prefer to have one. And in June, an exclusive report suggested lower pricing for Lion could be tied to purchasing through the Mac App Store.

For those who opt to download Lion, it carries the same aggressive price strategy that Apple chose for Snow Leopard. The low $29 price for upgrades proved to have great success, doubling Apple's previous records.

Those who opt to buy a new Mac won't need to worry about downloading Lion from the Mac App Store, as all new computers sold by Apple will come preinstalled with the next-generation operating system. That includes already released devices, like the latest MacBook Pro and iMac, as well as Wednesday's newly released hardware: MacBook Airs and Mac minis.