“This time, it looks like there will be early morning lines. That’s what AT&T retail stores around the country are expecting when the new iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11 at 8 a.m. At Apple and AT&T stores, all employees are asked to be on deck, with some assigned to crowd control duties in remembrance of last year’s long lines when the iPhone debuted at 6 p.m. on June 29, 2007,” Mike Wendland reports for The Detroit Free Press.
“Besides the time, what’s different with this release is that each purchase of a new iPhone is going to take longer. With the first phone last year, buyers just went home, hooked the phone to their computer, logged onto the Apple iTunes Music Store and did their own activation,” Wendland reports.
“With the new iPhone 3G — so named because it works on AT&T’s faster third-generation wireless network — store employees have to “unbrick,” or open, the box and do the physical activation of the phone in the store when it is sold,” Wendland reports.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Not in Canada
Apple must be making a load of money to be forced to go backwards – relative to the original release. Do it from home Apple.
This is just going to be a perfect example of the “i”Sucks Experience which is anything but normal from Apple.
Gosh Help them if there are problems with the activation process or unbricking process.. and thousands of people are stuck in line waiting 10 – 15 minutes per customer if were luck.
What a huge step backwards!! – Way to go Steve!!!!
I guarantee you that ATT’s activation system is NOT robust enough to handle the concurrent attempts they will see on July 11th. I recommend waiting ’til at least the 12th.
ease up guys, Apple has not made any annoncements on THEIR process yet. Let’s wait and see if Apple adds their own twist to their process.
Well, that does it. I’m officially an old fart. I don’t understand why anyone needs to get the new iPhone on the day it comes out.
Steve sold out.
I have to say that I would very, very, very happy to wait a little longer at a store and have the phone activated for me than go through the wait and disorganization involved in Apple activation procedure when the original iPhone came out–that took days, not minutes or hours, and me and wife both didn’t have the use of our phones during that time.
“Oh, my god, you didn’t have a phone for days, poor baby” Steve’s salad tossers will cry. No, in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t a big deal, and neither is having the phone activated at the store. Comparing inconveniences, activation at the store is better than the bunged up iTunes activation used on the last big-activation weekend when the phones came out.
buffalo,
Because last year’s Christmas must have sucked.
You sold out.
@buffalo
Some of us were still clutching our Treos back then.
Here come the excuses. No iTunes activation is a big relief now? Lol.
The vast majority of iPhone owners found iTunes activation to be a pleasant experience. Perhaps Apple should’ve made it optional for the few who ran into problems so the rest of us could continue to buy iPhones without being herded like cattle.
But then Stevie might not have gotten his fat subsidy and actually had to lose a little profit to sell the iPhone at a cheaper price. We can’t have that.
I’d rather pay the $700 up front and have a $400 service credit tacked onto my account than wait for in-store activation.
Looks like I won’t be there the first day this year.
PS Time to bitch and moan pro-actively: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
I am RIGHT up there with that Brandon guy!!!! Apple has NOT announced anything remotely related to plans on their store page. They in fact, still have their “email me” about info(which i still have received nothing). Apple’s process will undoubtedly be better and most likely be different.
What I would assume would be an in store unbricking and plan signup at home.
While it does indeed appear Apple has taken a step back towards the old phone activation model, we need to remember a couple of things. First, Apple still retains complete control of the usability of the phone, which no other carrier permits (ever used Verizon’s EVDO closed Internet system?), so we’ll still get the OS updates and iTunes/Apps Store purchases we want. This approach also allows AT&T;to subsidize the cost of the phone to entice users to actually sign up for contracts (while still guaranteeing Apple the $ it formerly got with the subscription rebate from AT&T;). Also, with the worldwide release of the iPhone 3G, and this mandatory sign-up at purchase, the iPhone hackers community should pretty much dry up, simplifying Apple’s iPhone support of the device.
The downside, of course, is the loss of the easy activation model that worked beautifully once the startup kinks were worked out. So, yes, it’s probably not wise to queue up for hours on Friday to purchase the new iPhone 3G, unless you want to participate in the party atmosphere that day.
And, while we don’t yet know exactly what Apple will be able to do to speed up the first day purchase process, it will probably be much slower than last year’s in-and-out in five minutes event.
People!!! It is not a full activation at the Apple store. You go home to complete the activation via iTunes; HELLO!!! Even AT&T;has received a special iTunes App to do the installs at the AT&T;stores for completely new accounts if requested. Give it time, it’s gonna be okay!
@AppleMan
You can say that to yourself when you have waited a few hours or more in line and then AT&T;Reports….
“Folks were sorry but our network is slow.. Activations are temporarly down… but fear not…. you can wait for an undetermined amount of time… or you can come back later…. Were so sorry!”
“Come back later to buy your iPhone 3G”