Clear Something Up About iPhone 5 & iOS5 Please..

[9822737]

Theres something I don't quite understand about the process of getting the 5 and iOS5 into customers hands..

I've heard reports about the iPhone 5 already being at the manufacturing stage and that we could have a release towards the end of September or more likely early October.

I'm pretty certain the iPhone 5 will be released alongside iOS5, I think that's at least a reasonable assumption, as new hardware has traditionally been release with the new software. However, iOS5 is clearly not finished as beta's are still be churned out and from what I read on here there a still a few 'minor' bugs to fix - which is fine as that's the point in producing these beta's and helps get the final version as bug-free as possible.

So how are iPhone's being manufactured as we speak when it's clear iOS5 isn't finished yet? And how long from it being confirmed a GM build until it can start to be put into the production process? It just doesn't make sense to me that 150,000 units are being produced a day yet iOS5 is not yet complete.

Cheers for reading,
Andy

 

[tomtom101]

May i refer you to the front page of Macrumors, they have just written something that relates to what your asking!

 

[Reddmanz]

"Apple is scheduled to send the golden master version of iOS 5 to its iPhone and iPod touch assembling partners during the timeframe of September 23rd through 30th, suggesting a launch for the new hardware around mid-October once the assemblers have had time to install the software on already-produced hardware and ship it out."

Quoted from the current front page article.

Seems to me they're making as many phone as possible rit now and then loading them all up with iOS5 as soon as they've finished. Which makes sense rather than waiting for iOS5 to get to GM before starting production of the phones. They dont need it to be finished to start making the actual devices it will ship on.

 

[danielowenuk]

I would think that the building of a phone takes longer to do than updating of software on that phone.

So they probably produce them in bulk before launch and update to latest software closer to launch?

 

[bmms8]

from what i understand, the OS is "flashed" onto the phone. though i dont understand exactly how it works, i believe it just takes a second or two for the information to be loaded onto the phone.

 

[9822737]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I written the article earlier today and didn't hit post hence me not reading the front page story mentioning this!

from what i understand, the OS is "flashed" onto the phone. though i dont understand exactly how it works, i believe it just takes a second or two for the information to be loaded onto the phone.

Yeah I can understand they do this, but a few seconds is still a long time when I expect them to be doing it on several million devices!

 

[bmms8]

Yeah I can understand they do this, but a few seconds is still a long time when I expect them to be doing it on several million devices!

youre right. it does take time. you asked a question and i answered it to the best i could. We have to assume they do not flash a phone at a time. it must be done in huge batches.

but no one knows exactly. we have to assume its done a certain way as it seems the only plausible way.

 

[TC25]

So how are iPhone's being manufactured as we speak when it's clear iOS5 isn't finished yet? And how long from it being confirmed a GM build until it can start to be put into the production process? It just doesn't make sense to me that 150,000 units are being produced a day yet iOS5 is not yet complete.

It's not that complicated. Since these devices are already manufactured there's only one way iOS can be loaded on the device and that's via the docking connector and to meet the production demand, it has to be done in parallel. Apple can send the iOS GM in seconds, it gets loaded to servers at Foxconn.

Using the iPad2 Q3 production estimate;

• 20,000,000/quarter
• 222,222/day
• 9,259/hour
• 154/minute

So, if it takes 1 minute to load iOS, they'd only need 154 connections. Toss in a buffer for delays, inefficiencies, etc., and make it 200 connections. If it takes 2 minutes to load iOS, they'd need 400 connections.

Fill in your own number for how long you think it takes to load iOS.