Earlier this morning, Apple announced another media event for this coming Wednesday (October 20th, 2010). The invitation is traditionally nebulous: the Apple logo slightly turned revealing, what appears to be, a lion behind it. Written below, “Back to the Mac.”

A few months ago Steve Jobs made news when a consumer emailed, his famous email address, to ask why Apple had seemingly abandoned the Mac OS, spending all of their time on iOS: this year’s developer’s conference was dedicated 100% to iOS (iOS powers iPhones, iPod Touches and the iPad). Steve responded, telling the concerned user “…not to worry.”

Apparently, Steve wasn’t lying: The invitation (pictured above) clearly reminds us all that Apple is dedicated to the Mac platform and isn’t abandoning it anytime soon.

In a recent Apple patent filing, the company applied to trademark a Mac that could stand upright (like a traditional iMac), but also kneel down, possibly transitioning to iOS and better suiting itself to touch interaction.

Microsoft has supported touch with their OS for some time now and they even advertise it with many of their licensed desktops and “tablet” PCs; the problem is that Microsoft has never modified their OS to truly adapt to touch. Instead, they’ve simply supported hardware that will allow you to touch your screen. Trying to touch something small is still one hell of a task. After all, there is a reason most of these devices ship with a pen-like stylus —- our fingers are just too big.

Apple, on the other hand, has recognized that touching an operating system designed for a mouse is not only unpleasant, it’s unacceptable. Their iOS was built specifically for touch. The question at large is, “will Mac OS X somehow integrate with iOS?“ Could a hybrid Mac be on the horizon?

While we won’t know what Apple has up their sleeves until the 20th, that won’t stop us from hoping speculating: One can reasonably assume that we’ll see a preview of what OS X.7 will look like, perhaps even a release timeline (i, personally, doubt we’ll see it released during this time). But, here’s hoping to something MUCH more exciting…

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