I'm just curious, does anyone know how Apple retail stores upgrade their inventory to new OSs? For, example Mountain Lion is coming out later this month so does that mean the night before its due to be released Apple employees install Mountain Lion on all existing computers in their inventory (because up until ML is released computers sell with Lion on them.). Or do Apple stores only stock a select amount of Lion computers with the hope of running out right before ML is released? However, this causes problems because they may both ave any computers left to sell right before ML release day....anyone know how this is handled?
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How do Apple retail stores upgrade their existing inventory?
- Thread starter Nosrettap
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Retail employees do not upgrade the OS on existing inventory. They do upgrade the demos on the floor however. It is up to the user to upgrade their OS if they receive a unit that was not distributed with the new OS. It is unlikely it would be done at Personal Setup either as that would likely saturate the wifi network in the store with all the 80gb downloads going on simultaneously.
They can't, as it would require unboxing and reboxing - they'd no longer be "new."
I believe though that they would have local copies on drives to do the upgrades after the unit is sold. It's not an 80GB download though - more like 4-5.
I believe though that they would have local copies on drives to do the upgrades after the unit is sold. It's not an 80GB download though - more like 4-5.
You seem under an illusion that Apple Stores download it from the net. I can assure you they don't.
That's probably why they don't do that. I know that for a fact.
Actually if memory serves, I was at the Apple store to upgrade to Lion on release day so I could use their wi-fi (I didn't have internet at home yet). I witnessed a couple of laptop sales while I waited to download it and I noticed that they just provided a code which they used in store to download it in store. There was no hard drive. They downloaded it just the same as me.
Now I am not doubting that they used a hard drive for the floor demo units that just had a hard drive image and they just re-flashed those.
80gb? wtf? It's like 4 and they encourage users who have slow connections, or no connections, to come in and download it at the Apple Store.
They can cache it on a local server there and have their network equipment redirect anyone downloading it to the local cache'd copy. It is highly unlikely that they would download their OS over and over for customers when caching is so easy to do.
That's not how it worked for me. I had to download it over the internet - took me over an hour to do that and they never offered me any local cache (I asked even) - I even plugged in via Ethernet to speed things along. At least one other customer opted to do the same thing.
Now I can't speak universally and I don't think they had a ton of people downloading - I believe they encouraged people to download it at home if they could.
no thats probably why they offer the free upgrade to Lion or in this case Moutain Lion for months after its been released to catch any Macs that were still on the previous OSX version
Maybe they replace the Macs with Lion with new Macs with Mountain Lion....then again, idk I don't work in the Apple Store (yet c: ) I'm just making a stupid guess
1. Apple offers the Up To Date program via their website for anyone who purchases a new Mac since mountain lion was announced. This did this with Lion too. http://www.apple.com/osx/uptodate/
Snow leopard and leopard saw retail stores do drop-in upgrade discs into the retail packaging. I know because I bought macs at the times when this happened. The discs in the boxes were full versions of the OS's too.
2. There is a master restore image on firewire drives that gets taken around and loaded on each machine in the store during one of their overnights. 2nd hand information but I believe it to be completely accurate.
Snow leopard and leopard saw retail stores do drop-in upgrade discs into the retail packaging. I know because I bought macs at the times when this happened. The discs in the boxes were full versions of the OS's too.
2. There is a master restore image on firewire drives that gets taken around and loaded on each machine in the store during one of their overnights. 2nd hand information but I believe it to be completely accurate.
That's what happened at least up to Snow Leopard. I was working at an Apple Store for both the Leopard and Snow Leopard launches - night before and day of. Can't speak for Lion.
I am not doubting this but what idiot would ever do this?
How slow would your connection need to be to be slower than packing up your iMac, driving 20 miles to your nearest Apple store, trying to park somewhere and then making your way to the shop, waiting to be seen, setting up your machine, downloading it, then packing it up again, getting back to your car and driving 20 miles home again through unknown traffic congestion, then having to unpack it and set it up again. That doesn't take into account that you might work all week and have to wait until the weekend to do it.
Just leave the damn thing on over night and job done.
A little under 10 percent of Internet users in the US are still on dialup. Try downloading Mountain Lion overnight on that.
Also there are a bunch of people with data caps.
Also the US isn't the only place in the world with Apple Stores.
There are people who are on limited speed DSL with bandwidth caps. 4 gigs is a lot for some people. You are though also exaggerating things a bit. I was able to walk right in to my local apple store in about 5 minutes and started downloading. I required no assistance or input from any store employee. One did come up to me but when I told him I had no internet to download Lion he was very cool and was very willing to help. I did this on a week night after work.
I have also carried iMacs around. They are not that heavy and genius bar appointments arent that hard to come by.
The only potential problem would be distance to an Apple store, but thats not as big of a problem these days with Apple opening tons of retail outlets.
They don't. There's a couple protocols for this. During a certain stage of the transitional period for Lion, Apple provided drop-in discs so the actual machines weren't used once they were ready to ship. But even these weren't done by retail employees, but rather at the distribution centers.
The other protocol is if you bought your Mac after the "get a free Mountain Lion if bought after this date," it's all the same: you get a free license of it for the MAS. Happened with Lion this way too.
As far as the dialup thing: if anyone really wants to buy a Mac, really doesn't want to have real internet, buys it right at the cusp of a new release, and doesn't have a way of borrowing real internet for an upgrade,
A. That's ridiculous.
B. In such a rare circumstance, I would be surprised if Apple didn't provide a free upgrade to ML in the mail. But maybe that's just me.
The other protocol is if you bought your Mac after the "get a free Mountain Lion if bought after this date," it's all the same: you get a free license of it for the MAS. Happened with Lion this way too.
As far as the dialup thing: if anyone really wants to buy a Mac, really doesn't want to have real internet, buys it right at the cusp of a new release, and doesn't have a way of borrowing real internet for an upgrade,
A. That's ridiculous.
B. In such a rare circumstance, I would be surprised if Apple didn't provide a free upgrade to ML in the mail. But maybe that's just me.
The data cap thing is bull,
Most isp's provide atleast 20gb.,
So just don't surf a whole lot in the mth,
I had bell and it was 60gb per mth, if you went over it would be 1.5$ per gig up to 30$ spend then you had up to 300gb.
I currently have youmano and its unlimited.
The only real limits I can see on data are them stupid 3g sticks
Most isp's provide atleast 20gb.,
So just don't surf a whole lot in the mth,
I had bell and it was 60gb per mth, if you went over it would be 1.5$ per gig up to 30$ spend then you had up to 300gb.
I currently have youmano and its unlimited.
The only real limits I can see on data are them stupid 3g sticks
You could not be more wrong. There are PLENTY of ISP's who have data caps of less than 20GB
I'm speaking for USA\Canada mainly,
Also you can go to apple stores, Coffee shops, hotels, ask a frend, find some one online to send you a stick,
many ways to get around this stupid download cap. Its bull to be honest.
There is no limit on the internet, the only limit is on the speed of the lines.
Why can isps not figure out your useinga ton of internet and just slow you down with a warning
like offer unlimited downloads if you go over lets say 200gb then your slowed down at peak times.
That would not bother me,
Most users will never go over 60gb.
Also you can go to apple stores, Coffee shops, hotels, ask a frend, find some one online to send you a stick,
many ways to get around this stupid download cap. Its bull to be honest.
There is no limit on the internet, the only limit is on the speed of the lines.
Why can isps not figure out your useinga ton of internet and just slow you down with a warning
like offer unlimited downloads if you go over lets say 200gb then your slowed down at peak times.
That would not bother me,
Most users will never go over 60gb.