Other How do Apple put iOS onto new iPhones?

[iScone]

I’ve always been mystified by how this is done. There are literally millions of phones sitting there without an OS and they all need the GM version installed, which was only released yesterday. And some of them will start shipping in the next couple of days.

There must be incredibly efficient logistics to get that done.

 

[MikeNemat]

I’ve always been mystified by how this is done. There are literally millions of phones sitting there without an OS and they all need the GM version installed, which was only released yesterday. And some of them will start shipping in the next couple of days. They would have hundreds of thousands of units packaged ready to go at this point.

There must be incredibly efficient logistics to get that done.

The phones most certainly haven't been sitting there without an OS up until the GM public release Apple is not cutting it that close.

The phones had the GM release or something very close to it installed for at least a week or two. There is no need for it to be the true GM release - it's probably quite close and the average person will never know the difference. Any minor issue will be fixed in a 12.0.1 release at launch. MacBooks often ship with special unreleased versions of OS X to support the new hardware, until the public versions catch up. Apple and other vendors have been doing this for years - decades even.

During the manufacturing process, the phone would be connected to a special-purpose machine that does quality assurance checks on the device. The OS would loaded at this stage, and it certainly happens much quicker than it would at home over a USB cable. It might not even be a full assembled phone at this stage, maybe it's just the logic board. The details are probably confidential.

 

[TJ82]

Fascinating isn't it, from our perspective. Almost mystical. Reality behind loading software is probably rather mundane from the manufacturer's end though!

Whatever the process is, the timelines on this stuff must be super tight. Really impressive how we can manufacture such complex objects in the millions at such speed, at such incredible tolerances. It's the tolerances that are the difficult part and that just blows my mind when I think of it. Loads of industries struggle with this. These companies that do this stuff, Foxconn and Samsung etc, medical and scientific equipment manufacturers.. just remarkable.

 

[SteveJobs45]

Dude I’ll have some of what you’re smoking

 

[JPack]

There are literally millions of phones sitting there without an OS and they all need the GM version installed, which was only released yesterday. And some of them will start shipping in the next couple of days.

iOS 12 GM has been frozen for weeks now. It's only available for the public yesterday because it had code referring to unreleased products. You don't really think there are millions of phones sitting in a warehouse without any software, do you?