Just an FYI for those of you that are starting to stress about your SP3 pre-orders shipping on time or wondering if they will ship on Friday or be delivered on Friday. Based on experience with the SP2 pre-order, nearly everyone that pre-ordered will get their SP3 on Friday.
You may hear conflicting reports that it ships via ground on Friday or that it will be delivered on Friday. Both are actually correct. MS seems to stage the products at nearby UPS locations or some other warehouse, label them at the last minute (like the morning of delivery in some cases), and put them on a truck for delivery to your doorstep on Friday morning. Don't expect to see much progress prior to that. They do the final billing 1 to 3 days in advance and you *might* get a tracking number at that time, but don't expect the package to show any updates until Friday AM.
Of course there will be some screw ups and exceptions, but for the most part you should expect your SP3 to arrive on Friday.
You may hear conflicting reports that it ships via ground on Friday or that it will be delivered on Friday. Both are actually correct. MS seems to stage the products at nearby UPS locations or some other warehouse, label them at the last minute (like the morning of delivery in some cases), and put them on a truck for delivery to your doorstep on Friday morning. Don't expect to see much progress prior to that. They do the final billing 1 to 3 days in advance and you *might* get a tracking number at that time, but don't expect the package to show any updates until Friday AM.
Of course there will be some screw ups and exceptions, but for the most part you should expect your SP3 to arrive on Friday.