This is the third email I’ve seen from Steve since WWDC. It looks like Steve must have sat through some discussion meetings since the emails he has replied to clarify items such as the discontinuation of MobileMe and the App Store installation of Mac OS X Lion.
Emails From Steve Jobs.com reader Andreas Dantz was kind enough to write in about a recent email he received from Steve.
With the removal of any physical media installation method for Lion, Andreas wondered how a clean installation would work if he bought a new hard drive. Would he need to first install Snow Leopard and then upgrade Lion on top of that? Or would there perhaps be an alternative to this?
Andreas wrote:
Dear Mr. Jobs,
I just wanted to know if there will be a way to install Lion on a new HDD/SSD without previously installing 10.6?
Regards,
Andreas Dantz
Steves straightforward reply:
Sorry, no.
Sent from my iPhone
So just in case you thought there may be an alternative physical media installation method. Sorry, no, Apple was serious when they said that Lion would only be available through the App Store. This is pretty interesting since it means that Steve must have sat through the meetings where they discussed the implications of this move to a download-only upgrade.
Full-size email screen shot: