[iMore Question]

This is probably a silly question but had me scratching my head. If the new OS doesn't go gold until a week before an iPhone is released to the public and its safe to assume apple (Foxconn) has built millions of these phones in the last month or so, how do these phones get the final version of e.g. IOS 11.

[TripleOne]

Hey there, welcome to iMore. Please feel free to register via the website. You raised a very interesting question.. I wonder how they do it too

[Sherry_B]

This is probably a silly question but had me scratching my head. If the new OS doesn't go gold until a week before an iPhone is released to the public and its safe to assume apple (Foxconn) has built millions of these phones in the last month or so, how do these phones get the final version of e.g. IOS 11.

Before they're packaged the latest (current at the time of prepackaging) iOS is installed. When the end user opens the phone and goes through the initial setup and hooked up to wifi, then it will update to the latest release if it is available.

[Premium1]

This is probably a silly question but had me scratching my head. If the new OS doesn't go gold until a week before an iPhone is released to the public and its safe to assume apple (Foxconn) has built millions of these phones in the last month or so, how do these phones get the final version of e.g. IOS 11.

They install it before they box them up.