In 7u6, AU on MacOS is triggered by Web Start. Future implementations will need to support scheduled updates.
Implementation should consider feature parity with existing windows clients (e.g. update params configurable via XML).
This was discussed in a meeting with Paul, Terri, Jeff, Aurelio and me and it was decided that -
1. Update check will happen weekly
2. Day of the week will be radomized to reduce the load on the servers
3. Hour and Minute will be the hour and minute of installation
Implementation will be done using LaunchAgents functionality of Mac OS X which is the Mac OS X equivalant of cron jobs.