Earlier this year, MacRumors reported that Apple would start randomizing serial numbers across all of its products starting this year. With the first products announced for this year, it appears that Apple is starting this transition now with its purple iPhone 12.
That same source also obtained a memo from March. It said that shipping products back then would continue to use the standard format, which is 12 characters long. Apple had used that special format for years, and customers/service providers had used that format to determine the following details:
- The first three characters: the manufacturing location
- The following two characters: the year and week of manufacture
- The last four characters: device’s model, color, and storage capacity.
This new format for the randomized serial number is initially 10 characters long, and it will eventually be around 8-14 characters long. The new serial number format did not appear with AirTag, but it would most likely make its way to others products such as the M1 iMac and iPad Pro. This will ensure better verification now that “Hackintosh” builders will have a hard time spoofing serial numbers.
What do you think about this major change for Apple’s products? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet us at @Appleosophy.
