Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Australian Apple iOS 6 release date

With the iPhone 5 release announcement just around the corner (rumoured to be September 12th), the question that comes to mind is when will Apple release iOS 6 for existing devices.

If you check an earlier JustLocal blog post on the release of iPhone 4S, the mobile was announced with shipping of product around 9 days later. The release of iOS 5 was 8 days after the announcement, one day before product shipped. I thought that was a good strategy. Whilst it does mean potentially lost sales from those who update their existing equipment, it also meant happy customers who could use features such as iMessage with new iPhone buyers. Having a large number of iPhone users talking about and upgrading their iPhones helps to promote the iPhone. Also the approach kept existing users happy which is a good thing.

The Apple announcement for the iPhone 5 is reportedly scheduled for the 12th of September. The shipping date has been rumoured to be the 21st of September (again 9 days), so a good guess would be iOS 6 will be available for existing devices on the 20th of September.  If I recall correctly, the pre-order date for the iPhone was on the Friday two days after the announcement which if the same schedule occurs again, pre-orders will start on the 14th of September.

I find it very interesting that Apple opened pre-orders on the Friday and started selling product on the Friday. I can only guess Apple have worked out the best days to release products and start taking order. Perhaps the end of week and weekend give people the best time to get their new devices.

Based on the iOS 5 experience I found downloads started about 9am Pacific time on the Thursday, which is 3am Friday in Melbourne Australia. However due to demand I found it was not possible to update iOS under late afternoon.

All the best with your iOS devices.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and surrounding suburbs.  

UPDATE: 18/09 While most of the above was pretty accurate for a prediction, I stand corrected on the iOS 6 update. The software will be available on Wednesday the 19th, one day earlier than I estimated.

7 comments:

  1. It is now 12:19pm on the 19th of September and so far, no iOS 6 update is available. The Apple press release does state the update will be available today in Australia.

    Kelvin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Probably September 19th California time which will be 5pm EST in Australia....

    ReplyDelete
  3. It will be interesting to see when iOS 6 is released. The time of 5pm assumes midnight on the West Coast of America. With iOS 5 I believe the update started around 9am on the West Coast which for us would be around 2am on the 20th and not the 19th. Downloads weren't stable until quite a few hours later. Based on Apple's dates matching closely to the last release schedule in terms of number of days between release, pre-order and availability, the earlier release of iOS 6 on the 19th was a surprise.

    Really though it isn't a major issue. A new and free release of the operating system that works on older devices is pretty good.

    Thanks for the comment.

    Kelvin

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for the update. I checked 5 min ago and still no Update

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's 5:31pm in Melbourne, which is after midnight in the West Coast of America. It looks like the release will most likely follow the schedule of iOS 5 as per the original post. That is, around 3am on the 20th.

    Kelvin

    ReplyDelete
  6. My iTunes says it will automatically check for the update on the 20th so Kelvin, your theory appears to be correct :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's 3:07am in Melbourne and the iOS 6 update has just become available and I've started downloading. Enjoy.

    Kelvin

    ReplyDelete