Method and apparatus for version independent point of sale activation (posa) product download

An apparatus for version independent Point of Sale Activation (POSA) product download comprising:

• packages by which a software product, unactivated prior to sale, is sold at a point-of-sale, said packages including a Point of Sale Activation POSA card;
• a computer having one or more processors and further comprising:
• a POSA version converter for accessing a database, wherein the database comprises a plurality of entries associated with a plurality of Point of Sale Activation (POSA) cards available for purchase at a retail store, retrieving, from the database, a plurality of entries associated with a previous version of a software product, wherein the previous version of the software product has not been redeemed, and updating, in the database, each retrieved entry with a generated serial number;
• and
• a serial number generator for generating the serial number for each retrieved entry, wherein each serial number is associated with a current version of the software product.

A non-transient computer readable medium for storing computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to perform a method for version independent Point of Sale Activation (POSA) product download comprising:

• providing packages by which a software product, unactivated prior to sale, are sold at a point-of-sale, each said package including Point of Sale Activation POSA card;
• updating a plurality of entries in a database, wherein the database comprises a plurality of entries associated with a plurality of POSA cards available for purchase at a retail store, wherein each entry is updated by:
• retrieving, from the database, a plurality of entries associated with the previous version of a software product, wherein the previous version of the software product has not been redeemed,
• generating a serial number for each retrieved entry, wherein each serial number is associated with the current version of the software product, and
• updating, in the database, each retrieved entry with the generated serial number;
• receiving a request to redeem a previous version of a software product;
• accessing the database using the request so as to retrieve an updated entry;
• and
• enabling downloading of a current version of the software product using the retrieved updated entry.