The Industry Standard - Breaking: iPhone 3G launch turns into a disaster - Comments

Nokia phones are the best

Douglas Brown — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:54:22 -0700

Nokia phones are the best phone investment that you could make. Year after year they have been providing quality phones for consumers. Unfortunately the new Nokia phones can cost you an arm and a leg, especially an unlocked Nokia 8800. I found a great site to find unlocked Nokia cell phones from auctions. I bought 2 Nokia 8800 cell phones for me and my wife, and we love them. Check them out at Unlocked Nokia Cell Phone Auctions. Just my 2 cents.

Thats why you don't plan

overl0ad — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:46:53 -0700

Thats why you don't plan your life around a cell phone. Technology is not perfect and never will be, and the fact that people such as yourself put so much reliance on it is a joke.

I couldn't of said it better

overl0ad — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:44:18 -0700

I couldn't of said it better myself.

I got my iphone at 8:30 in

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:32:59 -0700

I got my iphone at 8:30 in the morning at my AT&T store i was number 14 in line and we got out of the store around 9ish i went home downloaded the new itunes, and pluged it in, it took about 3 hours for it to activate, but it wouldn't sync, it took another 3 hours to allow me to sync it.(not to sync my music but to allow me to)) THEN i finally got it up i love it!!it worried me though but its good now!! and there are still lines outside my local apple store!!

and how could it not crash there were so many phones being actived at one time!! you kinda have to espect that!!

I was at the Clarendon store

john or — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:03:19 -0700

I was at the Clarendon store yesterday, and could not have had a better experience with the staff. They worked with patience and positive energy, even though some of the customer were tired and not unfairly stressed by the experience of waiting in line for the phone, and in some cases not even getting one. Several times while I was there, staff members made announcements to keep people from wasting their time (like if they had to go to AT&T store for a purchase, based on AT&T's contract rules).

Other than walking in and out with a phone in 10 minutes, what did you expect? When demand is that high, there's only so much that can be done, and cell phone contracts suck no matter what you do...

This is EXACTLY what

silverado — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:30:12 -0700

This is EXACTLY what happened with the release of the first iPhone. I bought it on day one and could not use it until 24 hours later. It's amazing everyone forgot. What's more amazing is that Apple didn't fix the problem (albeit with far more people hitting the servers today than the first release).

Still not luck here. I have

MM — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:23:00 -0700

Still not luck here. I have been trying since 9:30am (EST) this morning. I keep getting the error -4 message. There is absolutely no improvement that I can see.

Still not luck here. I have

MM — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:04:07 -0700

Still not luck here. I have been trying since 9:30am (EST) this morning. I keep getting the error -4 message. There is absolutely no improvement that I can see.

HAHAHAHA I think Apple just

niki C — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:02:55 -0700

HAHAHAHA I think Apple just heard me.... its activating now! and restoring from my old iPhone backup :P

now i still have to go through this activation hell for my wife's iPhone but at least im 1/2 done !

SHAME ON APPLE for nation

Niki C — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:58:34 -0700

SHAME ON APPLE for nation wide outages with millions of people without phone service and not even a bloody announcement on apology on their website!

It's 12:58 PST. I just

nate koechley — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:58:27 -0700

It's 12:58 PST. I just successfully upgraded iTunes. Can't upgrade my orig iPhone's software yet thought. (Checking for upgrade says 1.4 is still latest.)

Jordan Golson, this is

Bob — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:54:20 -0700

Jordan Golson, this is sloppy and unprofessional reporting. Even if Apple is having problems dealing with the HUGE demand for their amazing new product, you paint it as if they are completely incompetent. They will fix this issue very soon once they repair the server. To post a picture with the words "FAIL" over it, and to post the picture upside down I might add, is incredibly ridiculous. You know nothing about iPhones. Sim Card?? Geez, do some research before your try and give a company a bad wrap. You're creating biased and unsupported claims, as well as trying to create a panic or unnecessary mania. Shame on you.

COME ON APPLE please some

Niki C — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:40:50 -0700

COME ON APPLE please some kind of press release saying "we screwed up" or something!!! or how bout a price rebate for not being able to make or get calls for an entire bloody day! loss of productivity much! ... ANNOYING !

COME ON APPLE please some

Niki C — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:40:50 -0700

COME ON APPLE please some

Niki C — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:40:43 -0700

COME ON APPLE please some kind of press release saying "we screwed up" or something!!! or how bout a price rebate for not being able ot make or get calls for an entire bloody day! loss of productivity much! ... ANNOYING !

Breaking: iPhone 3G launch turns into a disaster

Jordan Golson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:21:03 -0700

Customers trying to buy 3G iPhones on launch day are running into a litany of problems activating their phones.

iTunes activations are completely offline -- a result of a "global" server crash according to former PC World editor Harry McCracken, who overheard an Apple employee at the Stonestown Mall Apple Store in San Francisco.

Gizmodo's Benny Goldman estimates the crash started around 9:45 am.

According to blogger Cali Lewis, speaking on TWiT Live, if store employees think you have any sense of technical knowledge, they're sending you home with the phone to activate at home. If you don't, they're keeping you around to try to activate in store.

Jamie Diamond, an iPhone customer at the Freehold Raceway Mall store in Freehold, NJ told me the store manager told anyone who was waiting longer than a few minutes for activation to go home and try from there. He told me that when he asked for a paper printout of the contract he had just signed, the store couldn't manage that seemingly simple task. An Apple employee tried to call AT&T, but the mobile provider required store passwords that "nobody seemed to have" before talking to anyone.

Harry McCracken spent a long time with a salesperson who "seemed pretty close to clueless... Rep seems like someone Macy's brings in at Xmas without sufficient training." McCracken was sent home with a sealed iPhone box -- but wasn't told that he had to plug the phone into his Mac to activate it. He was also given no information about swapping the SIM card from his old AT&T phone and simply incorrect information about incoming and outgoing calls once the phone was set up.

Further complicating issues is the main iTunes download link is currently disabled. Users must have iTunes 7.7 to activate new iPhones -- but if they didn't download it yesterday, they are currently out of luck. Even if the activations server worked, not having the proper version of iTunes leaves users out in the cold.

An AT&T spokesperson told me that customers at AT&T stores are being sent home and told to "synch the device later at home while Apple works hard to resolve issues affecting its iTunes software."

One commenter on my earlier story about Apple VP Phil Schiller's comments on the activation process had some harsh words about his purchasing experience. "When I finally got inside I weathered 2 hours of being talked down to by the 'geniuses' while they assured me that it as AT&T that was at fault, not Apple. Nice partnership. What a disaster. I am home now trying to active on iTunes and it still doesnt work. I want a refund."

There are also scattered reports of some stores not getting ANY iPhone shipments at all -- leaving folks who spent the night in line with nothing to show for their efforts.

Did you try to buy an iPhone today? How did you fare? Leave comments below, or let me know.

UPDATE - 1:30PM EDT: There are some reports that people are able to activate their iPhones through iTunes, but all commenters on that thread up to 1:58 pm say they still can't do it.

UPDATE 2 - 2:30PM EDT: Two commenters on the other thread reported connectivity starting six minutes ago, but one of the respondents says still no luck.

UPDATE 3 - 3:26PM EDT: Lots of commenters are saying that things are slowly getting back to normal.

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Special Feature: The iPhone naysayers, one year later
Prediction: Apple will ship 10 million iPhones in 2008
Prediction: 3G iPhone jailbroken within a week
Analysis: Independent gaming could flourish on the iPhone
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