“Newcomers to the Mac will be requested to register an email address, and some other details, when they first start up OS X,” Johnny Winter reports for Mactuts+. “This email address is often a yourname@mac.com, yourname@me.com or yourname@icloud.com, that can be obtained from Apple specifically for the purpose, or it may be your personal email address such as yourname@yourdomain.tld.”
“What may not be immediately clear to the new Mac owner, or indeed some existing Mac owners, is why Apple wants you to do this,” Winter reports. “An Apple ID is required to download software from the Mac App Store. That’s just part of it’s importance; an Apple ID is used for many other things such as enabling and using iCloud, buying from the Apple online store, making reservations (Genius Bar and Workshops) at an Apple retail store, accessing the Apple Support website and so on. It’s used for lots of things and it’s important that you know why and keep your Apple ID up to date.”
Read more in the full article here.