Apple will soon be able to update unopened iPhones

One thing about buying a new phone is that you’ll often have a system update waiting for you upon unboxing the device. However, Apple is reportedly working on a solution to this issue.

Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter that Apple was working on a way for retail stores to wirelessly update iPhones without opening the packaging.

More specifically, Gurman claims that store employees will be able to place sealed boxes of iPhones on a pad-like device. This proprietary device will then be able to wirelessly boot up the iPhone, update the system software, and turn the phone off again. 

It’s believed that this tech will arrive at Apple’s stores before the end of the year. Either way, we hope rivals like Samsung offer a similar solution at their stores as it could be extremely convenient for a few reasons.

For one, you can immediately use your phone without waiting for an update to download and reboot your handset. This could also be handy for people who lack speedy internet connections (e.g. in rural or underserved areas), so they don’t have to wait hours or use their data cap on a software update. Finally, this could potentially cut down on customer complaints as software updates would address many out-of-the-box issues.