Comment by MBCook

This may be an outgrowth that just sort of fell out of their project to allow updating the software on iPhones in the box.

they did that so people wouldn’t buy a new phone that had been sitting on the shelf for a few weeks or whatever and then immediately have to update the OS. By using a special device they designed they can power up and update the phone with the latest OS in the box so buyers are almost always up-to-date when it hits their hands.

But the fact that they did all that probably means that they had everything they needed to do this. Or maybe that’s how they “update” the phone, they don’t update the OS like a user would they just reflash it completely.