Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 appeared briefly on the company's online store as part of the Mac Box Set on Wednesday, even though Snow Leopard isn't scheduled to ship until some time in September. The Snow Leopard Mac Box Set quickly disappeared from the site, but not before raising speculation that Mac OS X 10.6 could see an early launch, according to Macworld UK.
The Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X, iWork and iLife. The current version ships with Mac OS X 10.5.6, iWork '09 and iLife '09.
An Apple sales person apparently confirmed that the Snow Leopard version of the Box Set was for sale, but that it probably wouldn't ship within 24 hours since Mac OS X 10.6 hasn't been released yet. Shortly after that confirmation, the updated Mac Box Set was removed from Apple's online store.
Rumors that Apple might be planning to surprise Mac users by releasing Snow Leopard ahead of schedule on August 28 have been making the rounds, but so far there hasn't been any solid evidence to back up the speculation.
Apple has officially stated that Mac OS X 10.6 will ship in September, and that Mac OS X 10.5 users can upgrade to the new operating system for US$29.