Shouldn't iMacs be shipping with Lion?

[dennya]

My dad just bought a 21" iMac to replace his aging PC at my suggestion. I sent him instructions for using the Lion migration tool, but it turned out his brand new Mac ordered direct from Apple last week came with Snow Leopard. He called tech support and they figured that out when he couldn't find the migration tool. At least they gave him a complimentary upgrade

Shouldn't new Macs have Lion by now?

And any suggested resources for a computer literate 70 year old using his first Apple since his 1983 //e?

 

[jmcgeejr]

My dad just bought a 21" iMac to replace his aging PC at my suggestion. I sent him instructions for using the Lion migration tool, but it turned out his brand new Mac ordered direct from Apple last week came with Snow Leopard. He called tech support and they figured that out when he couldn't find the migration tool. At least they gave him a complimentary upgrade

Shouldn't new Macs have Lion by now?

And any suggested resources for a computer literate 70 year old using his first Apple since his 1983 //e?

Sadly with stock sitting on hand apple is unable to re-image devices before sending them out to customers otherwise they wouldn't be considered new in box.

 

[themoffster]

I ordered a 21.5" iMac about a month ago and I got Lion.
The reason for that though was I upgraded the processor - if you buy just a stock ready to ship iMac you get SL, if you get a component changed, you get Lion

 

[henry72]

I ordered a 21.5" iMac about a month ago and I got Lion.
The reason for that though was I upgraded the processor - if you buy just a stock ready to ship iMac you get SL, if you get a component changed, you get Lion

Just curious, does the box have Lion desktop on it? Cheers

 

[Texran]

Also, did it come with the Updated Keyboard.

 

[creepy crab]

Just curious, does the box have Lion desktop on it? Cheers

I took delivery of my 21.5" 2.7 i5 on wednesday. It shipped with snowleopard, and the image on the box had the snowleopard desktop on it. However i received the new keyboard, and obviously was eligible for the free lion upgrade. Minor inconvenience at the very most. Maybe im sad, but even updating my new shiny mac was exciting

 

[old-wiz]

I took delivery of my 21.5" 2.7 i5 on wednesday. It shipped with snowleopard, and the image on the box had the snowleopard desktop on it. However i received the new keyboard, and obviously was eligible for the free lion upgrade. Minor inconvenience at the very most. Maybe im sad, but even updating my new shiny mac was exciting

Some members would be very happy if they got a new iMac with SL. If you get a new system with SL you can clone the disk before you upgrade to Lion so if there's a real issue you can always revert.

 

[bushman4]

Some still shipping with Snow Leopard. I called Apple and was told chances of getting LION already installed is 50/50 which is hard to believe being that LION has been out for several weeks.
I was in an Apple store last week and saw somebody purchase a 27" Imac and it did have LION.

I would think that within the next few weeks All Imacs will have LION

 

[creepy crab]

Some members would be very happy if they got a new iMac with SL. If you get a new system with SL you can clone the disk before you upgrade to Lion so if there's a real issue you can always revert.

Yeah should have thought of that. I did think long and hard before updating, started a thread on it infact. This may be a noob question, but if the imac ships with sl, if i was to restore to factory defaults would that not take the system back to a pre lion setup?

 

[Demosthenes X]

In the past, they used to drop the discs for the new OS into the box... are they doing anything now that Lion is out? Free downloads? It seems bizarre to me to release a new product and continue selling machines with the old OS on it...

(Mind you, you could buy Windows PCs with XP for years after Vista came out, so... )

 

[dennya]

Thanks, guys. So it wasn't an anomaly. I hope he at least got the Lion keyboard.

I'd expect more from Apple. They could re-image the machines and they'd still be new -- they're still with the manufacturer. Probably more of an expense thing.

(Imaging the Snow Leopard install, etc. is a bit much to ask of a first-time senior Mac user...)

 

[noisycats]

Opposite experience...

I just received my iMac from the refurb store 5 days ago. While the web page indicated SL, and while I truly wanted SL...it arrived with Lion. No disc. Nothing. Just Lion on the HD.

Sorry, I'm not ready for Lion. After about and hour of fiddling, I was able to load SL and all is well.

If you want Lion, get a refurb.

 

[AppleDApp]

And any suggested resources for a computer literate 70 year old using his first Apple since his 1983 //e?

have a look at this
http://www.apple.com/why-mac/faq/

these videos are great for basic mac stuff to bad they didn't update to lion.
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#anatomy

You can also check out one to one. When I got my grand mother a MBP she would go to the Apple store for one to one but quickly realized what she was learning there wasn't useful for her.

 

[odvan]

Thanks, guys. So it wasn't an anomaly. I hope he at least got the Lion keyboard.

Wait a minute, what Lion's keyboard are you talking about??

 

[qCzar]

The function keys on F3 & F4 have been updated with images to reflect Mission Control & Launch Pad, that's it.

 

[iSayuSay]

Wait a minute, what Lion's keyboard are you talking about??

Yeah ... it's a roaring shiny new keyboard, in which F4 key has been replaced for LaunchPad instead of Dashboard on "old keyboard".

Hardly important or something good enough to be called "new keyboard" actually ..

For OP: Have you tried to freely upgrade your iMac via up-to-date program? I can't remember but I think Up-To-Date program ended sometime in August. I hope it's not expired yet. Be quick though

www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate

 

[dennya]

For OP: Have you tried to freely upgrade your iMac via up-to-date program? I can't remember but I think Up-To-Date program ended sometime in August. I hope it's not expired yet. Be quick though

www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate

It's my dad's iMac, but when he called support to find out why he couldn't find the Lion migration assistant and they figured out he had the old version of OS X, they somehow walked him through getting the upgrade at no charge.

Now Amazon needs to hurry up and get me my new MacBook Air so I can be a good tech support son. (I sold my previous MacBook Pro just after Leopard first shipped, so I'm a bit out of the loop with the latest details. I couldn't even tell him where to find his Pictures and Documents folders with no Mac for reference...)