Apple Retail Closely Monitoring Employee Usage of iOS 7, Forbids In-Store Demos for Customers

ios_7_iconApple is carefully monitoring the way that its retail workers are using iOS 7, reports 9to5Mac. Both retail store managers and Apple's Human Resources team have been contacting employees that are found using iOS 7 to ensure that the beta software was installed through official Developer channels.

Apple's retail workers are only authorized to install iOS 7 if they are members of the iOS Developer Program or part of an internal testing project. Employees are not allowed to sign up for a developer account and share the iOS 7 beta with coworkers, as noted in a warning letter that Apple sent out to some retail employees.

Am I allowed to load and use iOS beta software on my devices? Not unless you are a member of the iOS Developer Program, or have been explicitly authorized by management to participate in the development or testing of internal Apple applications as part of an official Apple project.

You may not load iOS beta software onto any other person's iOS device. Employees are not authorized to receive iOS beta software from any third parties, even if those third parties are iOS Developer Program members.

Employees have also been forbidden from showing the iOS 7 beta to Apple Store customers. According to retail workers who spoke to 9to5Mac, Apple is "super strict" about all iOS 7 usage in store. "We could get fired for showing a customer iOS 7 on our phones because of the Apple Developer NDA agreement," said one employee.

Customers who bring in malfunctioning phones running iOS 7 will not be able to have them serviced in store either, as Apple has implemented guidelines preventing Geniuses from working on phones running the beta software.

Apple routinely uses its retail employees to test and improve software. Last year, Apple relied on its workers to help improve its Maps app, and this year, certain employees have been given access to OS X Mavericks for beta testing purposes.

iOS 7, which offers a radical design overhaul along with a number of performance enhancements, is currently only available to developers. The final version of the software is expected to be released this fall alongside the next generation iPhone.

Related Forum: iOS 7

Popular Stories

iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Johny Srouji

Apple Chip Chief Johny Srouji Could Be Next to Go as Exodus Continues

Sunday December 7, 2025 10:41 am PST by
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...
Intel Inside iPhone Feature

Apple's Return to Intel Rumored to Extend to iPhone

Friday December 5, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Intel is expected to begin supplying some Mac and iPad chips in a few years, and the latest rumor claims the partnership might extend to the iPhone. In a research note with investment firm GF Securities this week, obtained by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu said he and his colleagues "now expect" Intel to reach a supply deal with Apple for at least some non-pro iPhone chips starting in 2028....
google pixel 10

Switching Between iPhone and Android Will Get Easier With New Apple and Google Collaboration

Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta. Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Apple Fitness Plus expansion hero

Apple Fitness+ Coming to 28 New Regions With Digital Voice Dubbing

Monday December 8, 2025 6:19 am PST by
Apple today announced that Fitness+ is expanding to 28 new markets on December 15 in the service's largest international rollout since launch, accompanied by new language dubbing and a K-Pop music genre. Apple Fitness+ will become available in Chile, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and additional regions on December 15, with Japan scheduled to follow early next year....

Top Rated Comments

wesk702 Avatar
162 months ago
It can't be that big of a deal to show a customer a preview of things to come.

If it's buggy and can lead to negative impressions, you bet it can.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GSPice Avatar
162 months ago
Totally understandable. Otherwise they'd probably have a jailbreak bar, too..
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
appleisking Avatar
162 months ago
Its probably news to you, but there is such a thing as objectively bad design, and iOS 7 is reflective of such. Just because something is popular does not mean its quality.

If Ive redesigned the Coke cans, they'd look like this:

Image (http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1190020/original.jpg)

And you'd probably still praise it.

This is not the thread to go off on a rant about how bad ios7 design is. The article has nothing to do with that. Go explore the million threads on that topic and get into arguments there.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
funnyboy88 Avatar
162 months ago
As a former Apple store employee, I perfectly understand Apple's stance here. iOS 7 is for developer testing. It is inappropriate to demo it as a product. It also creates an inconsistent customer experience as any demo would not be widely available. You'd end up running around the store looking for your one employee friend who has it on his phone. Then you find out he is on lunch break and the customer gets pissy that they can't see iOS 7 and will say, "Well then I guess Apple isn't interested in my business." Or "Another employee showed me iOS 7, why can't you?!" You have no idea how pissy customers can be.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mj1108 Avatar
162 months ago
This seems heavy handed and silly.

What wrong with showing someone a little ios 7. Are they afraid it's so bad that people will run to android? Most people who would be interested in a sneak peek would be fully aware it is beta and will have glitches and may change before the final release.

I think it would bring more traffic to the stores and generate some excitement.
Part of the problem is, there are some people who don't know or realize what BETA is. If someone walks in off the street, sees iOS7 on a phone, tries it and finds parts of it buggy, etc...they could think iOS7 is a buggy piece of crap.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tubamajuba Avatar
162 months ago
Smart move. They don't want customers to see the elementary school Fisher Price iOS and go "ohhh, thats the new iOS? I'll, uhh, you can..hmmm....Oh is that a Microsoft Store?"

Are you serious?

This stuff wasn't even funny on June 10.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)