Yesterday’s 3G iPhone launch was just a flurry of manic activity the world over and unfortunately for Apple, most iPhone users will remember the major headaches that resulted from the phone’s popularity rather than the great product itself. For a company that masterfully pulls off product launches every year, it seems odd that poor planning resulted in all kinds of network problems as 6 million original iPhone owners tried to install the iPhone 2.0 software update while 3G iPhone buyers tried to activate their new phones at the same time.
But the New York Times reports this was exactly the case. Apple actually pulled off one of the worst product launches ever. “There are certain lessons in preparedness”, said one consumer electronics industry consultant, and because Apple was unprepared for the “Christmas morning”-like rush, customers suffered through seriously slow moving lines at Apple and AT&T stores in the United States. Plus first-generation iPhone users found their phones completely unusable after trying to upgrade their software because network gridlock made it impossible to connect to iTunes for update authentication.
Apple has not made any official statement regarding the problems but did admit their servers were overworked. One potential cause aside from the millions trying to activate and update their phones simultaneously was Apple’s new requirement that new iPhone’s be activated in-store. Last year, iPhone buyers activated their phones at home, but after problems with jailbroken phones Apple and their wireless partners decided to activate phones in-store this time so users were locked into a contract with the supporting wireless carrier. This slowed down the entire sales process.
There was also some issues changing over from the old .Mac web service to MobileMe, which is built to allow data-sharing between Mac computers and the iPhone.
Despite it all, most stores in the United States sold out yesterday although some will get new shipments today. Of those stores that will, pretty well all still have diehards camped outside waiting eagerly. In Canada where wireless carrier Rogers Wireless has tainted the iPhone’s arrival in Canada with outrageous pricing plans, sales were impressive. Reuters reports that people waited outside Toronto’s Apple retail store for 16 hours, much of that in the rain, to get their hands on a new 3G iPhone. In fact one man flew to Toronto from Jerusalem just to purchase an iPhone, something that won’t be available in Israel for a least a couple more years. In the end it seems the battle with Rogers really meant nothing. The iPhone is just one of those products people must have.
Photo Credit: Rafael Torales
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