New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update

[MacRumors]

New MacBook Air and Mac Studio users who are expecting one of the machines later this week will need to install a day one software update to upgrade to the latest version of macOS Sequoia.

The M4 MacBook Air and M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studio models will come with older versions of macOS installed. The MacBook Air models appear to ship with macOS Sequoia 15.2, while the Mac Studio models have macOS Sequoia 15.3 installed.

Apple released macOS Sequoia 15.3.1 back on February 10, but the Mac Studio and MacBook Air were clearly prepared for launch before that update came out. macOS 15.3.1 is not available for the new machines just yet, but Apple is likely to release a new 24D2072 variant for the upcoming Macs ahead of their launch date.

Pre-orders for the M4 MacBook Air, M4 Max Mac Studio, and M3 Ultra Mac Studio began last week, and the first shipments are set to arrive to customers on Wednesday, March 12.

Article Link: New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update

 

[russell_314]

Didn’t Apple have some fancy system to update MacBooks inside the box or is that just iPhones?

 

[tonywalker23]

forgive the dumb question, but that means that for like a month or more these things have sat in a box—revealing the blue color—and we were still surprised?

 

[tonywalker23]

Or in other words, 1)if so I am amazed it stayed a secret. 2)I wonder what the timeline/life of a new MacBook is like, at what point does it get its OS, stored out of box for any reason, finally packed into a box, etc.

 

[Howard2k]

forgive the dumb question, but that means that for like a month or more these things have sat in a box—revealing the blue color—and we were still surprised?

More than a month I’m sure.

 

[anthorumor]

Day 1: Literally Unusable /s

 

[jz0309]

forgive the dumb question, but that means that for like a month or more these things have sat in a box—revealing the blue color—and we were still surprised?

Yup, and Gurman totally missed it

 

[FelixDerKater]

All Apple products are released as public beta tests. This is not shocking.

 

[brofkand]

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.

 

[Otwer22]

All Apple products are released as public beta tests. This is not shocking.

How so? I would say this is more of a windows issue than a Mac, at least the Mac software update is for security reasons, more than bug fixes.

 

[goonie4life9]

Wow, the ALL NEW MacBook Air and Mac Studio are so bleeding edge that Apple has already squeezed-in a software update, to make take these ALL NEW devices to a whole new level. The pace of innovation is staggering. Tim sure wasn't kidding when he said the pipeline has never been stronger!

Back in the real world, this is another piece of evidence of how far in advance Apple finalizes products. Remember that the next time one of the "insiders" posts a "leak" of a "last minute" change in some Apple product. They are either peddling old news or they are part of the tutti-fruitti, phoney baloney, plastic banana, good time, rock-n-roll Apple PR machine to build hype.

 

[waterfta]

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.

It's a computer. Aren't software updates happening almost daily for any device you have? The fact that a computer has updates day 1 is not a revelation to anyone is it? The fact that MacRumors is putting this up as news is what is more ridiculous.

 

[DPL145$]

Threads like these always get me in trouble; especially when I ask 'what planet are you people from?" Dang--do you think that Apple announces a product then a batch of magical sky fairies produce tens of thousands of units and stock them all over the world in 24 hours? The computers (MacBook/Studio) went into production months ago...it takes time to produce the large number of units needed for initial inventory and have them shipped to the US...Production clearly started well before the current version of iOS was finalized--so yeah, you need to update to get the most recent version of iOS if you are buying the initial release hardware.

 

[svish]

Not surprised to see a day one update. Think the devices were ready for launch sometime back. Also it is now quite common for Apple devices to get day 1 update. Prefer to have the latest version pre-installed but it is not a huge hassle to update.

 

[Warped9]

Not a big deal. I often set up iPads and it wants to do an update before transferring data from another iPad or from iCloud.

 

[Velin]

I prefer users having to run an update, versus a $100 price increase on each device because users are too lazy to click on General -> Software Update.

 

[Smartuser]

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.

Oh wow, an update, the humanity!

 

[rehkram]

I prefer users having to run an update, versus a $100 price increase on each device because users are too lazy to click on General -> Software Update.

There's maybe a better adjective out there, "dumb" perhaps?

 

[chfilm]

Maybe that explains the ridiculously low benchmarks on the m3 ultra.

 

[youteonduty]

well if the reduce the cost i will not mind day 1 updates, i can always do that on my own over the internet not sure what the significance of such a statement is which have been highlighted over the years

 

[macfacts]

Day 1 update isn't bad, it's the wait for day x update to have a working/bug free product

 

[chucker23n1]

Part of it could be that these are being shipped by vessel rather than airplane, for environmental reasons.

 

[asiga]

I don't think this is new. In fact, IIRC, none of the Macs that I bought throughout the years came with the last OS update installed. I think I updated the OS in the first day even with the white G5 iMac.

Edit: Also, I don't expect too many bugs this time, because there are no new processors except for the M3 Ultra. When the M4 was released, there were quite a few reports of OS crashes with the M4 Pro and M4 Max, but all of that is fixed by now (at least I haven't found more complaints about M4-related crashes).

 

[Big_D]

Or in other words, 1)if so I am amazed it stayed a secret. 2)I wonder what the timeline/life of a new MacBook is like, at what point does it get its OS, stored out of box for any reason, finally packed into a box, etc.

To 2) the image has to be created and tested and then installed on the production line systems that copy it onto the SSDs of the Macs as they are assembled. Due to them being produced in hundreds or maybe a couple of thousand a day and pre-sales and first week sales likely to be in a six figure range, those devices have to be produced in bulk and stored, until day-and-date.

I suspect the image used on the production line is update on a quarterly basis, unless there is a catastrophic reason to update it sooner...

 

[Big_D]

I don't think this is new. In fact, IIRC, none of the Macs that I bought throughout the years came with the last OS update installed. I think I updated the OS in the first day even with the white G5 iMac.

Edit: Also, I don't expect too many bugs this time, because there are no new processors except for the M3 Ultra. When the M4 was released, there were quite a few reports of OS crashes with the M4 Pro and M4 Max, but all of that is fixed by now (at least I haven't found more complaints about M4-related crashes).

It is the same for Windows and Android as well, get them out of the box, turn them on and they want to update, i-Devices as well. Major updates cause a new image to be created, but unless there is a catastrophic bug the image probably won't get updated on a more timely basis.