Apple readies new hardware serial number format

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  • Reply 21 of 33
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,715member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JeffDM

    Serial numbers isn't news. It isn't even a fluff piece. It's trumping up some irrelevant trivia at best.







    Is anyone here going to NAB? I thought about going for business reasons but I'm not up to it quite yet.




    Everything is news Jeff. Trivial perhaps, but it gives us something to talk about that we wont turn purple over.



    I used to go to NAB, the Cable conventions (Playboy's display was ALWAYS the best). I used to design and built electronic and mechanical games for Showtime. But not any more.
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  • Reply 22 of 33
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by melgross

    Everything is news Jeff.



    To people that are in love with a money-making machine (incidentally called Apple), yes.
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  • Reply 23 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gene Clean

    Let's see Windblows match this...



    Ouch, nice.
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  • Reply 24 of 33
    mike3kmike3k Posts: 3member
    This is something that's going to affect me as a software developer. My product tracks hardware assets, so it needs to obtain the hardware serial number and send it to the management server, which will also need to handle the new data format in the database & reports.
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  • Reply 25 of 33
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member
    I hate reviving this topic, but I wonder if the new 17-inch MacBook Pro will have the new serial number format, or is that waiting for the lower-end MacBooks?
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  • Reply 26 of 33
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DHagan4755

    I hate reviving this topic, but I wonder if the new 17-inch MacBook Pro will have the new serial number format, or is that waiting for the lower-end MacBooks?



    Answering my own question ? Perhaps not...



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  • Reply 27 of 33
    Here in Asia I made a web form for an Apple reseller for trade-ins. I had restricted the serial number field (using Dreamweaver Spry) to 11 characters only. Until now, I haven't encountered more than that.



    Today I got an email from someone trying to enter 12 characters, it's legit, incidentally a MacBook Pro 17".



    Haven't seen more than 12 characters though. Maybe Apple is only gradually increasing their serial number character count. I have changed the web form to accept 11 to 12 characters now. (Yes, Dreamweaver Spry is not the best solution in the whole world, but it works for what's needed at this stage).
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  • Reply 28 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BigMcLargehuge View Post


    Obviously I must now cancel my order for a 2 GHz Core Duo iMac with 2 Gigs RAM, 500 Gig HD, and 256 Meg Vid Card Upgrade (plus Wireless keyboard and mouse) so I can be certain to get one with an 18 digit serial number.



    Pfft that sounds so old! Amazing how technology changes in 5 years.



    I wonder back then if we had imagined 27" IPS iMac with

    2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

    8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB

    2TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive

    8x double-layer SuperDrive

    ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM

    Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

    Magic Mouse



    (Of course PC specs can be higher than these... another debate altogether)



    Or the shift from big monster desktops to mobility.



    Before iPhone, or even iPad, exploded Apple up into another level of the atmosphere.



    Ah, it is interesting to reflect.
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  • Reply 29 of 33
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    Here in Asia I made a web form for an Apple reseller for trade-ins. I had restricted the serial number field (using Dreamweaver Spry) to 11 characters only. Until now, I haven't encountered more than that.



    Today I got an email from someone trying to enter 12 characters, it's legit, incidentally a MacBook Pro 17".



    Haven't seen more than 12 characters though. Maybe Apple is only gradually increasing their serial number character count. I have changed the web form to accept 11 to 12 characters now. (Yes, Dreamweaver Spry is not the best solution in the whole world, but it works for what's needed at this stage).



    Not to be a pain but why not start a fresh thread?



    Besides that are you talking about serial numbers (which increase by one for each new device) or part numbers? Depending upon the encoding of the serial number the extra digits might be nothing more than an indication of higher sales volume. A good sign by the way.
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  • Reply 30 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Not to be a pain but why not start a fresh thread?



    Besides that are you talking about serial numbers (which increase by one for each new device) or part numbers? Depending upon the encoding of the serial number the extra digits might be nothing more than an indication of higher sales volume. A good sign by the way.



    Yeah, I know it's an old thread but it's the top google result for "Apple serial number formats" or something like that. So I think it's nice to compare this announcement from 2006 with current status, and my recent first finding of a serial number longer than 11 characters.



    This is related to serial numbers. Like W9930GJS393 or something like that. Part numbers are very different, they are like MC024LL/A, MB402ZP/A and so on.



    Yeah, with higher sales volume that's why Apple needs to increase their current serial numbers from 11 characters, I imagine.



    iPhone serial numbers are probably going to move from 11 chars to 12 chars or more, if they haven't already, I'm not sure.



    My iPad serial number is 11 chars.



    What is interesting is this article mentioned it could go up to 18 digits, and this was back in 2006. The article says that it would go to an 18 digit non-alphanumeric, numeric-only serial number format. But the 12 character serial number I got for a MacBook Pro 17" (recent model) is alphanumeric, not purely numeric like the article says.



    Therefore, actually, it looks like Apple did *not* implement this 18 digit numeric-only serial number system, but maybe they just continued with the 11 character alphanumeric system, while extending it by an extra character for now.
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  • Reply 31 of 33
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,715member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    Yeah, I know it's an old thread but it's the top google result for "Apple serial number formats" or something like that. So I think it's nice to compare this announcement from 2006 with current status, and my recent first finding of a serial number longer than 11 characters.



    This is related to serial numbers. Like W9930GJS393 or something like that. Part numbers are very different, they are like MC024LL/A, MB402ZP/A and so on.



    Yeah, with higher sales volume that's why Apple needs to increase their current serial numbers from 11 characters, I imagine.



    iPhone serial numbers are probably going to move from 11 chars to 12 chars or more, if they haven't already, I'm not sure.



    My iPad serial number is 11 chars.



    What is interesting is this article mentioned it could go up to 18 digits, and this was back in 2006. The article says that it would go to an 18 digit non-alphanumeric, numeric-only serial number format. But the 12 character serial number I got for a MacBook Pro 17" (recent model) is alphanumeric, not purely numeric like the article says.



    Therefore, actually, it looks like Apple did *not* implement this 18 digit numeric-only serial number system, but maybe they just continued with the 11 character alphanumeric system, while extending it by an extra character for now.



    I rather they just went to letters. The advantage to the base 26 as opposed to the base 10 is enormous.
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  • Reply 32 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    I rather they just went to letters. The advantage to the base 26 as opposed to the base 10 is enormous.



    Well, they are keeping it as a combination of letters and numbers. So should be more than base 26 for each of the 11 or 12 characters.



    Maybe they did realise 18 digits numeric-only is too long with limited possibilities compared to alphanumeric 11, 12 or even 13 characters.
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  • Reply 33 of 33
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,954member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Not to be a pain but why not start a fresh thread?



    I'm fine with reviving an old thread when there is new information relevant to what started the thread.



    Reviving an old thread means I get to see any updates too, because of the email notification of a new post to a subscribed thread.. I might never see a new thread.
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