Apple as it promised before before has started shipping USB drives carrying Mac OS X Lion in its retail stores. The $70 drive, unlike the USB recovery sticks, includes a full copy of the OS for those who can’t or prefer not to download the whole install itself. Apple isn’t offering Lion Server or volume packs in the same terms.
The drive isn’t vital for those comfortable with extracting the disk image from a Lion install before they upgrade but avoids a legal gray area and a dedicated, easily identified drive for the install.
Visitors to the online Apple Store will have the option of buying the USB drive soon.
