If you’ve purchased a new iPhone in the last several years, chances are you’ve been presented with a software update right out of the box. Bloomberg reports that Apple will soon deploy a new system to improve this experience, allowing iPhones to be updated wirelessly without being taken out of the box.
When the iPhone 15 launched this year, Apple was forced to release a day-one update to fix major problems during the iPhone-to-iPhone transfer process during setup. This update was presented during the setup process of the iPhone 15, but having to update your new phone before you can use it isn’t an ideal experience.
Top comment by John Atkinson
This seems like it will be very similar to the Apple Watch DFU tool for Apple Watch Series 7 & up. For context the Apple Watch Series 7 removed the physical diagnostics port so if the OS needs to be restored they need to use a special pad that uses the 60GHz wave band I think, anyways it’s a high data wavelength with the problem being that it’d fail it doesn’t have line of sight but it makes wireless recovery really fast.
As far as I’m aware the Apple Watch DFU tool is only available to Apple stores and not to third parties as it’s meant for device recovery/repair. This tool could be sent to retail partners as well but it’s also possible Apple keeps it to themselves and only updates them right before sending to retail.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple has a fix for this problem. The company has reportedly “developed a proprietary pad-like device” that can turn on and update an iPhone while it’s still in the box.
Apple is planning a new system for its retail stores that will update the software on iPhones prior to sale. The company has developed a proprietary pad-like device that the store can place boxes of iPhones on top of. That system can then wirelessly turn on the iPhone, update its software and then power it back down — all without the phone’s packaging ever being opened. The company aims to begin rolling this out to its stores before the end of the year.
As it stands now, iPhones are shipped from the factory with whatever build of iOS was available at that time. This means millions of iPhones out there ship with iOS versions that are multiple updates old by the time that phone arrives to the customer.
This is a pretty impressive piece of technology, and it’ll be interesting to hear what Apple Store employees think of it when it launches later this year.
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