“Many eager U.S. buyers of Apple Inc’s new iPhone left stores on Friday frustrated because their new gadgets did not work due to problems activating service,” Reuters reports.
“A spokesman for AT&T Inc, the sole U.S. carrier for the iPhone, blamed problems synchronizing the phone with Apple’s iTunes online music and software store. Apple representatives had no immediate comment,” Reuters reports.
Reuters reports, “AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said Apple was working to resolve the problem but declined to give a timeframe. ‘That’s a good question for Apple,’ Coe said.”
“Earlier in the day, many customers had left New York stores pleased that it had taken only 15 minutes to activate their new iPhones, which combines a music and video player, cellphone and Web browser,” Reuters reports. “But by mid-afternoon, many were annoyed.”
Full article here.
Because by mid-afternoon in New York, the west coast had come online and bogged down the servers, that’s why. We understand the frustration; after all, ’twas us who first screamed “iBrick!” last year over activation delays. One year wiser, we advise, “patience, padawans.” In fact, we just registered an iPhone 3G via iTunes within the last 5 minutes — from our office, not in-store, like the good old days! Now, the fact that the same thing happened last year, well, naturally, that might lead some to ask, what, if anything, did Apple learn from that fiasco?
I don’t understand why you people are so invested in Apple. I mean, you’re a bunch of rabid fanboys, and for what? Apple screwed up, it’s really as simple as that. It’s not that big of a deal and will be largely forgotten soon, which makes your sycophantic defense of the blunder all the more amusing. Reading the posts here just reconfirms what I’ve always thought about this company and their products- they’re for people who are too dumb to use a PC and are willing to pay twice as much for the same thing, with far less choice, but an OS that holds your hand on doing simple tasks.
Guys, I have a small bit of advice:
GET A FRIGGIN’ LIFE! Stop being such railbirds and realize there is more to life than a computer and phone. Look, I love Apple and its products as much as the rest of us. But we knew today was going to be like this. I doubt that any company would have done much better. Not that this could not improve. It can. And I bet several people within Apple will lose their jobs over this. For them, life will be very real.
For the rest of us, stop your whining and be patient. Go outside. Put down your iPhone, step away from your Mac, and go play with your kids. Toss a frisbee with your dog. Breathe the summer air. Suddenly, you might realize the world is larger than our favorite company.
Look, I agree with a lot of what you said. Doing everything at once is a recipe for failure. It’s complex enough doing activations with a partner like AT&T;. Mix in a crush of worldwide demand, and you’re guaranteed to take down servers big-time. And I agree that Apple would have been smart to roll out the App Store and iPhone software 2.0 a few days earlier. But we knew this was going to be a mess today no matter what. And I agree with the mobile enterprise guy about depending on iTunes for everything – that is what geeks call a single point of failure. I have a hunch that more heads will roll.
That said, we’re human. The people who work at Apple are human. I’m sure a lot of people in Cupertino are working their butts off to fix all this. And employees in stores across the country are having a very challenging day. So relax already. If you haven’t bought your iPhone 3G yet, be patient. Wait a couple of days for the hysteria to subside. In the mean time, stop your whining, hug your wife or husband or lover, and enjoy life. Trust me, you might actually enjoy it.
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It’s the least we can do for a service we’ve all become addicted to over the years.
All these countries, and all their iPhone fans hitting on Apple at the same time. No server could stand up to that. I had problems for a few hours. I connected properly an hour ago and — my 1st gen. iPhone has a new lease on life. Amazing stuff, these new apps.
How are the Zunes holding up?
Two days without e-mail. One MORE reason to not particularly like the iPhone. It isn’t bad enough that it offers features I don’t really want, much less need, and that it costs what it’s worth (a lot) but now it has to make a bit of a mess of my life?
This is “great publicity” for Apple? That they can’t take care of business? Screw that! I want my e-mail. A few hours is no problem (usually) and even a full day is acceptable, if forewarned, but this is two days. TWO DAYS ! ! ! In the middle of the week. They could have planned it better. They could have brought it on-line in shifts, as someone else suggested. Or made sure they had twice as many servers available on Day One.
I’m not drunk enough, not yet, to take this lying down!
Not being able to update the software on my phone really makes that work related right hand amputation pale in comparison. I thought I had a probably operating that thing with one hand. Now I have real problems.
I went out over lunch to get an iPhone here in Charleston, Sold out. The lady at at&t;told me they sold out by 9:00 am. YIKES
Exactly. These people seem to love nothing more than to bend over and take it from SJ. Still, the rampant fanboyism sure is entertaining. As to the people saying those with bricked phones should get a life- that’s a bs argument. For better or worse, we have come to depend on the speed and availability of communication via cell phone. Not having a phone is a serious problem for many people these days. What happened today simply isn’t acceptable. It would be one thing if Apple acknowledged the problem and warned people to hold off on updating till the servers could be fixed, but they did nothing and it just shows what they think of their customers. They know their customers are ignorant sycophants who will put up with anything and so they don’t have a second thought about screwing them over.
Great Apple Fanboy Massacre,
How’s Vista workin’ for ya?
He’s one cool cat that Jobs dude.. reduces server capacity to create a cluster then milks the free publicity. A Master class in deliberately creating a cockup and turning it into a triumph. This has got to be part of a carefully crafted strategy…genius!
DP
My original Iphone got bricked this morning when I upgraded to V2.0 software. I was without service for about 4 hours but after the rush on Itunes calmed down I was able to complete and restore my phones software.
150 phones for the only ATT corporate-owned store in Seattle! I went there mid-morning and they were out. Pissed. Not offered at the on-line Apple store. Contemplating getting in line in the middle of the night for tomorrow’s piddly allocation.
Finally got through to 2, @ 6:01 pm EST.
Done at 5: 35.
It is so ON!
I love all the Windows suffers that come in here to gloat that Apple sucks because the have millions of people on line for products. How funny that must be for you windows users…. People actually waiting on line to buy a company’s products.
How’s that Vista machine running for you? I know, it’s great because you didn’t have to wait in a line to get it. That says it all really.
It’s okay, people always hate those with so much.
My free light saber app might be the coolest app of all.
Suck on that Mac user…….
You windows suffers……. well, you just suck.
As staunch an Apple supporter as I’ve been, i must admit it:
Apple fscked this up… BIG TIME!!
“ALL AT&T;Stores are SOLD OUT” per Kristi at AT&T;. I just got off the phone with her. She said as of 6:15 PM EDT all the stores had sold their stock out completely but, could not say when they’d have more. So, do I give up my 20% monthly discount and go to an Apple store or wait a few days?
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What a stupid comment that was, exactly what did Apple fuck up?
Remember all the G3 Powerbook shortages? Any of us quit buying Laptops?
Remember 1 in 5 people taking the 1G Nano’s to the Apple store because they were busted? Any of us quit buying iPods?
You will keep buying Apple products, and more people will start buying Apple products. Then we will have more dumb people complaining that “Apple screwed this up, 50 million people should be able to be on the internet, at the same time and same sight without even a slow down”
I am making a bumper sticker for the technologically ignorant here…..
“Got stupid”
I have Vista, works just fine for me. Microsoft screwed the pooch on its release, their consumers took them to task for it, and they worked to fix the problems. I’ve used Leopard and don’t really find it any more or less useful than Vista or XP. None of this changes the fact that Apple screwed up today, and their complete non response shows how little they care about their customer base. Then again, they know they can get away with this crap because the fanboys think that Apple can do no wrong and, if nothing else, will just keep telling themselves “at least it isn’t M$.”
And to the “Great Apple fanboi massacre” you have a huge hard on for Steve Jobs. Another amazement to me, people enamored and pissed off with/by someone elses success.
Good luck with the nothing you are currently doing in life, and also good luck trying to escape the sloppy seconds that impregnated your Mom. Your dad was pretty pissed following behind his father-in-law.
“What a stupid comment that was, exactly what did Apple fuck up?”
Plenty. They hyped the release date to generate a fervor, and yet didn’t think to check that their servers could handle the load. That’s an understandable screw up, but they didn’t even warn first gen iPhone users to not upgrade till the mess was fixed. Firefox was able to handle this kind of event recently, and with far fewer resources than Apple. To me this all just shows that Apple doesn’t give a damn about their customers.
Apple today once again proved that they could give a rats ass about current customers. People once again proved that American consumers are idiots and will wait in line for their precious gadgets while half a world away our soldiers are dying and we pay $5.00 for a gallon of gas. Yet the Apple zealots will continue to forgive Apple because they like to be sooooo cool with their new iPhones.
If you think this shortage was not planned than your are either an idiot or a fool
“……….just shows that Apple doesn’t give a damn about their customers.”
Is everyone on stupid duty today? Okay so Apple doesn’t care about me as a customer. They didn’t care when they charged me “NOTHING” at the Apple store for transferring the contents of one of my iMac’s hard drives to another, both out of warranty, neither had Apple care. My mother board fried on one, the fee was $150, they charged me nothing.
Every time my wife or I have screwed up our user accounts on our home Mac’s, the genius’ fix it, have never been charged. Hell I trashed Apple works back in the day….. they got a copy from the back and installed it for us.
But that is just on company that doesn’t give a shit about their customers. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you feel so screwed let them know, I am sure they will go above and beyond to fix the problem and to make you say “WOW”, they didn’t have to do that but they did.
Quit bitching, vent to Apple, at least they have a chance of helping you. All I can do is keep reminding you of what an asshat you are being.
Actually that would be, people are idiots all over the world, because in Japan, the were 1000 count them 1000 people waiting in line for the iPhone. Personally, I would just wait until the initial rush was done in a few days and get a phone later.
And, as I keep reading reviews and story’s of “diehard windows user for 20 years switches to Mac OS X” I just laugh like I did 10 years ago at comments like “What’s the big deal, it’s just an OS” Just goes to show, until you use, you don’t get it.
Thank God for those soldiers, freedoms to do silly things like complaining instead of living are great to have. Just glad I have never had to try and feed my family with a small cup of grass i was able to find, as my 10 month old baby lay dead in my arms because mom isn’t lactating because of a lack of nutrition.
That was a story I saw on CNN a couple of years back.
I don’t know WTF the problem is. I upgraded my old iPhone to 2.0 mid-afternoon, no problem. Got my new one this eve, gave my old one to my son. No problems with activation in store. Like last year, no problems.