If you ever wanted your new iPhone to arrive updated once you’ve opened the box, this feature might be on its way.
With the release of the first iOS 17.2 beta to the developer community on Thursday, a series of references indicates that Apple may be working on a way of wirelessly updating the sealed iPhones.
Per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a new system is being developed so that Apple can wirelessly update sealed iPhones to deliver them to customers with the latest software available. The company reportedly decided to invest in this system after being forced to release a day-one update for iPhone 15 models to fix a major bug during setup.
The iOS 17.2 beta SDK that comes with the latest Xcode 15.1 beta also helps corroborate this report. There are three new internal frameworks named FactoryOTALogger, FactoryOTANetworkUtils, and FactoryOTAWifiUtils enable wireless OTA firmware updates by using a special external device.
This follows suit with what Gurman has recently reported in his Power On newsletter. The article describes the system as a “proprietary pad-like device that the store can place boxes of iPhones on top of.” The feature is not intended for end users and is clearly marked as internal in the codes seen by the media. In the future, this will allow Apple to avoid major day-one bugs by installing iOS updates on sealed iPhones.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac and @markgurman