Apple Stores to offer free WiFi for Mac OS X Lion upgraders

We all know that Apple will be eschewing physical media for the upcoming update of its operating system (and all other apps as well) – a move that has both bad and good points. This means that Apple doesn’t have to waste money on physical packaging and getting CDs duplicated, software can be released globally at the same time easily and it’s good for the environment.

Unfortunately, it does have some drawbacks as well. Not everybody has a high speed internet connection at home, and if they do, it might have a monthly cap, and some people might have both bad connections and a data cap. 4 gigs of data to download could take days or even weeks for some people, and others, it would be a huge chunk of their data cap, and sadly for some – it will be both.

However, Apple has announced that they will be letting users bring their Mac computers to Apple Stores nationwide to borrow the free WiFi network to download the update. While this is a sign of goodwill from the company, it could possibly backfire: a lot of people will definitely be taking advantage of this offer and if there are a lot of users in the same store at the same time, it’s definitely going to cause the network to slow down to a crawl. Let’s not forget the possible lack of power outlets for people to keep their devices charged.

Either way, kudos to Apple for taking brave steps forward by getting rid of using CD/DVDs to install software. Let’s see how it works out for them.

George Wong
Categories: Apple, Computers
Tags: apple store, internet, lion, Mac (Apple), OS X, Update