How to guarantee Mountain Lion on new MacBook Air?

There is no way to guarantee anything outside of waiting - and even then you won’t know until you power the darn thing on. But IMO you are making a mountain (lion) out of a mole hill. You get the OS upgrade for free. There is no “risk" whatsoever. You get your upgrade, you install it right when you get your laptop.

Nosrettap said:

But when would you think that there would be at least a 90% chance of it having ML? Wait a week? Two weeks? A month?

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His point is there is no monetary difference one way or the other as to wether or not it has ML on it. Apple is usually pretty quick about updating their shipping laptops with the new OS, but even if it doesn't have ML, you'll be able to upgrade to it instantly.

Nosrettap said:

But when would you think that there would be at least a 90% chance of it having ML? Wait a week? Two weeks? A month?

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It all depends on Apple’s inventory levels which none of us are privy to. It won’t be too long, but honestly there is no reason to wait - you get the OS for free so all you need to do is upgrade on day one. You have no reason not to - the system is designed to be upgraded. You won’t loose your data (there won’t be any to loose really).

It sounds silly but I am doing the same thing. My feeling is the store advertising will be clear on what will be installed, in fact the store should update to new images with the new default background. It may also be the case, given the GM has been out for a while now that Apple is now installing ML on the systems already, and holding them for deployment. In store stock rotates at a crazy fast rate during back to school as well, so this quickens the transition in the supply chain. A BTO config is also more likely to have ML because it is made after the order is placed, regardless I plan on reading what the store says, if its says ML, good to go.

Nosrettap said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is a bit silly . As I figure it, I've waited long enough to get a laptop that I might as well wait another week or two to make sure that it's "pure"...No need to take the chance of having old Lion software on it...lol

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That’s silly. You get the same software no matter what. You upgrade, you get the same software as if it came pre-installed. And there is no reason to be pure - you would only do that if your old install was problematic.

There is no “chance” you would get the same software weather you upgrade on day one or get it pre-installed.

Nosrettap said:

I'm going to buy a new 8GB MacBook Air through the back-to-school program; however, I want to guarantee that when I purchase it, it has ML on it. I don't want Lion to be on it and then have to upgrade, even if it's a free upgrade. I know this may seem kinda a weird desire, however just bare with me.

My worry is that I'll buy a new one tomorrow and I'll just get on that they have had in inventory for a while and then I'd have to install ML myself. This, my question is: what should I do to minimize this "risk"? Should I wait a week and then purchase it online? Or is this even necessary? Maybe online purchases already have ML. What do you guys think? I want to get it as soon as possible but I don't want it to be an old inventory stock that still has Lion. Thanks

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You will probably have to wait a week to a month to get a guarantee like that it will be installed like you ask , I would call apple and see what they can do for you or chat with one of there sales people at the apple store website . Also I know how you feel I would want mountain lion on it too if I was getting it right now . But it could be nice to have both in case you do no not like mountain lion . In my opinion lion 10.7 was not very good so mountain lion should be better but who knows until tomorrow when it is released .

I live in New York so I assume that the inventory at the Fifth Avenue store goes quickly. I'll probably pop in this weekend and see if Mountain Lion is on the laptops they're selling and hopefully buy one then.

I bought an MBP for my wife in January and we had to use the Lion up-to-date program. This was almost 6 months after the release of Lion. So unless you're ready to wait longer than that, there's no guarantee.

Then again, buying a 2013 MBA next summer will probably be a guarantee, unless it comes with the successor to ML installed.

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techocd said:

It sounds silly but I am doing the same thing. My feeling is the store advertising will be clear on what will be installed, in fact the store should update to new images with the new default background. It may also be the case, given the GM has been out for a while now that Apple is now installing ML on the systems already, and holding them for deployment. In store stock rotates at a crazy fast rate during back to school as well, so this quickens the transition in the supply chain. A BTO config is also more likely to have ML because it is made after the order is placed, regardless I plan on reading what the store says, if its says ML, good to go.

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False. The Apple Stores, and certainly the inventory for online orders, include "BTO" models, especially of the common configurations. All pre-loaded with the current OS when they were built. Changing the box to show a desktop with the current OS can happen at a different rate compared to the rate for actually installing SSDs with the newest OS.

Apple simply says it "comes with OS X 10.X" and either it's pre-installed, or you can download it for free using the up-to-date program. You find out when you open the box and boot up.

If it comes with Lion on it and you absolutely have to have a clean install of ML, just download ML from the App store and do a clean install. It's an hour out of your time.

SlCKB0Y said:

If it comes with Lion on it and you absolutely have to have a clean install of ML, just download ML from the App store and do a clean install. It's an hour out of your time.

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This.

A clean install is the same as having it ship with ML. Some people use the upgrade option which doesn't erase everything beforehand. Simply select the "clean install" option instead.

Nosrettap said:

I'm going to buy a new 8GB MacBook Air through the back-to-school program; however, I want to guarantee that when I purchase it, it has ML on it. I don't want Lion to be on it and then have to upgrade, even if it's a free upgrade. I know this may seem kinda a weird desire, however just bare with me.

My worry is that I'll buy a new one tomorrow and I'll just get on that they have had in inventory for a while

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Hi Nosrettap. If you are buying a 2012 Macbook Air then the absolute longest it could be sitting on the shelves is the 11th June which is when they first came on sale. But in reality as these are a new, in-demand model, I doubt that a purchased Air will have been on the warehouse shelves long.

The box of my Macbook Air has printed on it something similar to 'designed in Cupertino USA, made in China.' Which means the OS is installed in China. Apple made the new OS available to staff at the end of last week. So try and calculate how many days it takes Apple to ship/fly your product from China to USA (or whatever country you live) and you have your answer.

My guess is around two weeks. But why wait! Order you Air today and it will be brand new, and the install of Mountain Lion should (fingers crossed) not be to arduous. Good luck!

I am also waiting to buy Macbook Pro from Best Buy , most probably would be buying it at the end of August. Will BB selling Macs with ML till then or I will have to buy with Lion and then pay to upgrade to ML? I know now upgrade is free for new Macs but I think thats only valid till 30 day period after release of ML.