∞ Apple will let users download Mac OS X Lion from retail stores

Posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 11:33 am. PT

Apple has done away with shipping physical disks for its most recent products, but not everyone has broadband, so what do they do?

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]Several Apple store representatives have told Computerworld that users can come into their local Apple store and download Lion using their Wi-Fi network. You don’t need to make an appointment, just walk in and start downloading.

This will certainly help out users that live in areas with no broadband or their connection has data limits.

Apple showed Lion during its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. Lion is scheduled to be released sometime in July and will cost $29.99.

http://twitter.com/scottaw scott

my guess is that if you don’t have broadband in your area, you probably also don’t have an apple store there either.
http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

As I said on Twitter: Hey Mac “journalists”: Stop asking Apple Retail Employees about Lion installations. THEY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING…

“This will certainly help out users that live in areas with no broadband or their connection has data limits.” Maybe but it doesn’t do much for those with iMacs or towers.
http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

As I said on Twitter: Hey Mac “journalists”: Stop asking Apple Retail Employees about Lion installations. THEY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING…

“This will certainly help out users that live in areas with no broadband or their connection has data limits.” Maybe but it doesn’t do much for those with iMacs or towers.

Steven Fisher

Yeah, this lacks elegance. I mean, I’m sure you’ll be able to do it, but I doubt this is Apple’s official answer (whether or not they plan one).

http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

“I doubt this is Apple’s official answer…” As the (awful) Computerworld article only quotes Apple Retail Store Employees, I can guarantee it’s not the Apple Corporate answer. It’s just some store employee shooting from the hip. Computerworld should be ashamed to build a story around it.

Anonymous

As a member of this generation, I have already formed my opinions straight from the hip and don’t need to read the article to defend them because I can just throw around belittling epithets.

*takes a refreshing sip of Kool Aid*

The information as paraphrased above isn’t incorrect information, but nor is it an “answer” to a “question.” Apple Stores do have free wireless broadband, and a user can indeed bring his Mac in — I guess in theory he could in fact drag his desktop along in lieu of a laptop — and log in to the store’s wifi network and purchase Lion, supposing he is having trouble doing so at home. Not an incorrect statement, and I’d expect helpful to a certain number of people.

I would type more, but I’m having trouble seeing the keyboard; my reality seems distorted.

http://www.acid-product.co.uk Ian Davies

Download on to… what? A laptop? USB stick? What if you don’t have a portable Mac? Are they expecting people to lug their Pro towers in?

Anonymous

It would have to be your own computer because they locked out signing into your own accounts on their computers and since you don’t know the password to their account you likely won’t be able to get the installer to work. Or if you do, it would be the one time with no updates since you can’t validate the app on your computer.

As for lugging in your pro tower, I highly doubt that anyone with that kind of machine is in an area without broadband, doesn’t have a starbucks nearby etc. For that matter, there are probably not that many folks period that lack wifi access somewhere. So okay you might have to buy a cup of coffee to get the password but that’s generally not that big of a deal since you are talking a couple of bucks

http://www.acid-product.co.uk Ian Davies

I highly doubt that anyone with that kind of machine is in an area without broadband

How do you get to that conclusion?

http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

LOL No kidding. Especially as, like most generalizations, it’s dead wrong.

http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

There are plenty of people who don’t have sufficiently fast connections, throughout this country. Your correlation with Pro tower owners is unsupported.

And I’d love you to find me a Starbuck’s that would me okay with me bringing in a laptop and, for the price of a coffee, using their wireless to download 4 gb of data.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WHFQKRUVMJSEFVO7L3UNR7OMCQ arti.fact

Was’nt it the head of marketing for Apple said that they wanted to get away from us going out and buying software at a local store and then coming home and installing it. Well, hello going down to a local Computerworld if you have one and downloading it is just as bad.

Apple really has dropped the spinning beach ball on this.

Let us download it and let us burn it with an embedded serial on the .dmg that could be only used for that computer that it’s installed on. More than one computer then you would have to burn another disc with a different serials number on it for a different computer.

This isn’t rocket science.
Anonymous

Just to be the devil’s advocate…perhaps this speaks to the nature of the OS: it’s optimized for iCloud; you probably need broadband to take advantage of iCloud; they want this arrangement to screen out users that don’t have the assets for a positive iCloud experience?

There seems to be significantly more in Lion than just the iCloud integration, but perhaps that’s what the Apple core message is (see what I did there?): that above all else, Lion is the desktop gateway to iCloud.
Chand

It is an absolutely the most dumbest decision Apple has made in quite a while. Just like the in app subscription this will be reversed to. Just shows … sometimes brilliant minds made stupid decisions.