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Comment by RetroTechie | Hacker News Reader

Surprised at all the praises here. Sure, it's cool tech. Sure, it could cut down on updates users have to do/approve/wait for after unboxing.

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.

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Look at Apple’s track record. It’s insanely rare that they have a problem that requires a day one emergency update for a new OS. They work fine out of the box in the state they were shipped.

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.

> have it sit on a shelf for a bit

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.

It's a security issue.

If a critical vulnerability is found while the phone is on the shelf, you go home, turn on your phone, boom it's vulnerable.

I don't think the issue is half-baked software. It's the idea that you buy a phone six months out from the last major release, open it up, and boom, it's charged and even has the latest update already installed. No irksome red dot on the Settings app icon. It's a little more "magic" to wow the customer.

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