10.7 Image on New MacBook Pro?

These Macs originally shipped with a special build of 10.7.4 that was designed for those alone. There were 3 separate builds if I recall. If you can get your hands on the special build for that model you could create an image for it. Or, wait for the upcoming 10.7.5 release, which should be out sometime soon. That will likely boot any current and older models.
just because these 2012 Macs ship with 10.8 doesn't mean they require it.

This may be a rhetorical question, but shouldn't Apple be able to help provide me a copy of 10.7.4 that would be compatible?

Or, are there ways to get my hands on the special build?

Yes, my other thought was to wait for 10.7.5, but it's unknown as to how soon it will be available and I'd like to get these new machines deployed soon.

I'm not clear about the first part of your question, but if you have an Apple Systems Engineer or sales rep you talk to., I would bring it up with them. Tell them you can't deploy Macs with 10.8 yet for whatever reasons you're already aware of and need to get the build of 10.7.4 for these new Macs so you can image them. they may be able to help.

Prior to 10.8 releasing, you used to be able to get the special 10.7.4 build for these by doing an Internet restore of Lion. But if I'm not mistaken, now it will pull down 10.8 or 10.8.1. I can't be 100% certain of that though, so you may want to give an internet restore a shot and see what it actually pulls down. Don't get your hopes up on that though. Apple did a pretty efficient job of eradicating any trace of Lion from the MAS and other locations once Mountain Lion dropped.

Correct, I've been working with my Apple Systems Engineer and he said he's unable to help :S

And yes, internet restore only pulls down 10.8 since that's what the MBP was shipped with.

Yikes! Sounds like a PITA. Its stuff like this that makes many enterprises despise Apple, and I can totally understand why. No other vendor forces you to move up to a new OS before you are good and ready except for Apple. Apparently they just don't get it, or they get it and just don't care.
I hate to say it, but you're only hope may be to wait for 10.7.5, which should work with those models. If you have access to the developer build, you may even want to begin working with that now to get ready for when the final release of 10.7.5 is out.

The only other thing you could do is try to get a 10.7.4 Lion installer from someone for that model who may have one, but I have a feeling that may be against some Apple EULA somewhere. :(

"Apparently they just don't get it, or they get it and just don't care."

It's the latter.

I agree wait for 10.7.5. It's crazy it's not out already... been months.

It's not really crazy so much as they really want to make sure it's the last time they do a major dot release of Lion...ever.

And yes the forced migration to a new OS is a PITA. Preaching to the choir here I think.

For the first time ever, we had to create an alternate NBI for the Mid 2012 laptops. In the past we only had to create a new Base Image. Now we have 2...so far.

Our STANDARD image (Base Image and NBI) works on everything pre-2012.

And now we have a RETINA image (Base Image and NBI) that works with Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 15 inch Retina/non-Retina.

We are waiting for the Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 13" and the two Mid 2012 MacBook Air models to come in. I'm sure the former will work with the RETINA image, and fairly sure the later will require a 3rd image. :(

[color=red]I loathe Apple....at least until Sep 12th. :)[/color]

Here is our Mac Image Compatibility chart that we provide all our analysts, of course we updated it regularly as we update our image (client related info removed):

http://donmontalvo.com/jamf/WBEI_Image_Compatibility_Matrix_20120821.pdf

Don

We have been successful using the 10.7.4 build 11E2617, on all Mid-2012 9,1 & 9,2 models in our environment. This build was the version installed on one of our newest 9,2 MBP's.

Hasaan

@Hasaan, I'm certain you've been successful with this, as so have we. The issue the OP is running into is, there is apparently no way to get that special OS version once the new Macs started shipping with Mountain Lion. After that point, all traces of Lion disappeared and even Apple Systems Engineers can't get their hands on it (which seems ridiculous).
If you were unlucky enough, like John, to not have had the chance to get one of the new Macs BEFORE Mountain Lion, you are SOL. Had Apple not forked the OS build for the new models, this would likely be a non issue. But as of now. it's Mountain Lion or nuthin' A nice "middle finger" to the enterprise, even if it wasn't intentional.

The only bright light in all this is that Mountain Lion seems to be a very stable release of OS X. Not without some issues, but much better at .0 than just about any previous release thus far.

The issue the OP is running into is, there is apparently no way to get that special OS version once the new Macs started shipping with Mountain Lion. After that point, all traces of Lion disappeared and even Apple Systems Engineers can't get their hands on it (which seems ridiculous).

Well, it's true that apple won't assist you in obtaining the installers, but it's not impossible to get them. You have to do the download from internet recovery trick. it's been covered a few times on these boards. Here's a link to the procedure:
http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/downloading-lion-os-installers-for-your-specific-mac-model/

Seems the OP tried that and because the Mac in question shipped with 10.8, it pulls down 10.8. Maybe there is some other way to trick the Mac into downloading 10.7.4, but I kind of doubt it.

I had this same issue when the forked version of 10.7.4 was released with the new 2012 MBP/Retina MBP.

Apple was of no help; thankfully, this was before 10.8 came out so i was able to retrieve build 11E2617 and build off of it. I'm confused why Apple doesn't provide specific build OS's to enterprise clients.

Maybe a developer preview build will work? :-/

10.7.5 developer preview will work on all 2012 models currently shipping.
it's strange the OP isn't getting 10.7.4 from internet recovery- I have a retina that still pulls 10.7.4 builds using IR. weird.

nkalister,

If i'm not mistaken, doesn't Lion Internet recovery pull the OS the machine shipped with?