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Apple Online Store Goes Down Ahead of 'Time Flies' Virtual Event
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oh god no. They’re going to bring back one more thing only to sully it with a thing nobody wants!!!!
I genuinely can't remember the last time anything significant wasn't leaked before an Apple event.
Looks like there are a lot of comments about this, so let me perhaps shed some light. I've worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group. I just wrote a reply about this. Here's part of it.
It's because of bad architectural design and creaky old software. It's over 20 years old and so there's a bunch of old tech still in there. Just a few years ago they were still running parts of the online store on old Next software tech !!! Yikes
Nope, it's not about keeping secrets. Let me perhaps shed some light. I've worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group. I just wrote a reply about this. Here's part of it.
It's because of bad architectural design and creaky old software. It's over 20 years old and so there's a bunch of old tech still in there. Just a few years ago they were still running parts of the online store on old Next software tech !!! Yikes
Since its html5, in 2020 is just a habbit for all of people who are used to it
They just close the site down for more exiatment. When they do press releases they dont close the site down
They just close the site down for more exiatment. When they do press releases they dont close the site down
If the AirTag's are announced I will purchase a handful of them without restraint. I don't even need them for anything but I will FIND something ok?....
Nope, it's not tradition. While it is common for Apple, it is not for any other major eCommerce store I know of, and I've worked on a few. They do HAVE TO take it down. Let me perhaps shed some light. I've worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group. I just wrote a reply about this. Here's part of it.
It's because of bad architectural design and creaky old software. It's over 20 years old and so there's a bunch of old tech still in there. Just a few years ago they were still running parts of the online store on old Next software tech !!! Yikes
All the people who order the current watch and iPad to find there’s a new one three hours later would want a return. Best to shut off the store for a few hours. If they kept the store open and only cut off the products about to receive the updates would mean the rumor sites would guess the updates. Makes total sense to shut down the store.
Nope, it's not so they can get things right. It's bad tech.
I've worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group. I just wrote a reply about this. Here's part of it.
It's because of bad architectural design and creaky old software. It's over 20 years old and so there's a bunch of old tech still in there. Just a few years ago they were still running parts of the online store on old Next software tech !!! Yikes
...it goes down for hours because they have to deploy software and content throughout a few data centers with 1,000s of servers.
Yes, this is the habit when an event where products are announced
I've worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group. And so I can tell you, they don't take the store down to get some free marketing by getting news stories like this one written.
It's because of bad architectural design and creaky old software. It's over 20 years old and so there's a bunch of old tech still in there. Just a few years ago they were still running parts of the online store on old Next software tech !!! Yikes
I could tell ya' stories that would make an engineer forehead slap themselves dizzy. 🥴
And they won't spend the time to update and fix it. Stuff just moves too fast, so they just throw money at working around the mess. So, it goes down for hours because they have to deploy software and content throughout a few data centers with 1,000s of servers. On the upside, the operations control center is impressive.
Very surprised they never got to modernising it over the years. Are there any benefits of running it on such an old tech?
Appreciate the insights you posted after my post.
I still say it's become somewhat of a tradition for Apple -- I'd predict that a bunch of MR folks would complain about it if Apple were to suddenly switch to in-flight updates instead of taking downtime.
Nope, it's not about tradition, nor is it motivated by, nor controlled by MarCom (the marketing and communication group at Apple) so it's not good marketing. Check out my reply:
I remember in the old days, Apple would screw up and put up new hardware on the store before the presentation. So people knew what was already coming. Or they would try to place a order for it and the order would get messed up. Or the shopping servers would crash.
Besides iPhones and Apple Silicon, we know they have to announce:
- AirTags
- Two Watch models
- New iPad models
- Apple One
- Apple TV 4K v2
With their love of preamble, that’s more than two hours.
- AirTags
- Two Watch models
- New iPad models
- Apple One
- Apple TV 4K v2
With their love of preamble, that’s more than two hours.
Please, can you tell us that you worked at Apple in the Online Store engineering group again? Maybe you do not said it enough times.
Although you'd be closer on some of the infrastructure in place for the online store, the optical networking stuff that went into Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore was very impressive. High end and very specialised stuff, I found myself in my front room in England at 2am local time, quite enjoying a conference call between the States and Singapore whilst they commissioned some kit. Most of it went completely over my head, but what I did understand was darned impressive!!
Or the Canadian edition of Time puts the sunflower iMac G4 on their front page the night before the MWSF where it was announced.