Really great idea. Apple has been relentlessly improving the iPhone upgrade process. Long gone are the days when I’d dread the days it would take to fully set up a new phone.
But sheeshj, one can't build a phone, install software on it, have it sit on a shelf for a bit, and then work as advertised without updating immediately after purchase? Latest iPhones don't sit on shelves that long, do they?
Yeah, I know how it works these days. Like with AAA game releases where people are downloading GB-sized updates a day after release.
But this isn't something to be proud of! If anything, it shows the sorry state of current-day software development & deployment practices.
Fix the problem. Not the symptoms.
Seems to me this is a solution to the other side of the problem. Were you buy a “brand new“ phone and then immediately have to spend time while downloads the update and installs it because the box sat around a little while and your phone has a newer OS version and won’t transfer until the new phone is updated.
Apple has started transitioning some products to ship by boat rather than by air, so it could be over a month from when the product leaves the factory to when it hits the shelf. Having this kind of update process is a lot more important in that scenario, to the point that Apple probably views this as a prerequisite to using ocean shipping for the iPhone.
If a critical vulnerability is found while the phone is on the shelf, you go home, turn on your phone, boom it's vulnerable.