“The activation ordeal that many iPhone 3G buyers went through earlier Friday seemed to be over as the day ended on the East Coast of the U.S.,” Stephen Lawson reports for IDG News Service.
“People buying the hotly anticipated handsets in New York and San Francisco on Friday morning had to wait longer than expected to get them working, after even worse problems in London caused Apple to close its main store there early. But at just after 5 p.m., customers leaving an Apple store in New York’s Soho district said activation had gone quickly and smoothly, as did some customers on the West Coast,” Lawson reports.
“Apple and its U.S. carrier partner, AT&T, had planned to complete all activations inside their stores. To get their phones working, customers have to set up a two-year contract with AT&T and synchronize the new phone with Apple’s iTunes site. But because of sluggish performance on the site, the companies split up those steps and told owners of the new phones to take them home and complete the iTunes step themselves, according to AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel,” Lawson reports.
“‘The iTunes software appeared to have been so overwhelmed by demand today that customers were not able to go through that final stage and sync their iPhones,’ Siegel said. ‘Apple has worked very hard to remedy that.’ Apple did not respond to requests for comment,” Lawson reports.
Full article here.
Bravo to Apple for not selling the phones or activating them in their stores, but rather relying on bumbling Rogers outlets to disappoint customers instead.
Rogers solution = no iPhones, no activation woes!
i am curious as to how many phones sold. we have a few reports of the lines, but is that due more to slow registration or demand?
here in salt lake, my brother tells me he tried to get a phone at noon, but the line went all the way around the building the Apple store was in. not around the apple store, but around a building with 4 other stores in it as well! people working there told him they closed the line down 10 minutes before, because “we don’t think we can get the entire line served before midnight”!!!
i hope they make an announcement about first weekend sales.
Mobileme still doesn’t work for 10.4 users. Huzzah.
What a mess.
@PC Apologizer,
Oh, pish-tosh. In a day or two no one will remember
this.
Why is this a big surprise? I prefer to let early adopter always to my beta testing.
Funny how the whiners and moaners get the airtime.
All the thousands and thousands of happy users enjoying the new product and new software don’t get a mention…
Go figure.
@ PC Apologist
“Mobileme still doesn’t work for 10.4 users. Huzzah.
What a mess.”
See, unlike Vista, there is a real reason to upgrade to OS X 10.5.
I see the virus problems at MDN seem to be fixed. Did anyone else get dumped into a Windows / Vista scanner program that was really just a virus trying to load??
it was called “install_4921_MHwyNnwxMDAwMDAwMDAwfHx8fHx8fHw_-1.exe.” Sure glad I was running a Mac cause all my computer did was laugh at this attempt to down load automatically.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
I saved a screen shot but do not know how to load it here.
en
” Funny how the whiners and moaners get the airtime. “
Couldn’t agree more. As Apple fanboys we don’t really care if we get products on time as promised or if they work at all, … after all, the iPhone “sexy” and “just gorgeous” and “the back of it looks better than the front of the other guys” (Everyone laugh at that really funny joke for the 10,000th time!!!!!!!!)….
What you fanboys don’t get it Apple is playing in the big leagues now. Fanboys will accept anything whether it works or not. If it has an Apple logo on it, you will turn your back on poor performance.
Now you’re moving into a market not occupied by fanboys and things gotta work. The general public is not going to accept “Yeah, Apple bricked my phone but I can do without it for a day or two”….
Luckily, I updated to 2.0 yesterday about 4 PM and it went well. I feel sorry for people who depend on their phone for business who should just “quit whining” and accept it….
But after all, it “only” their livelihood. You fanboys don’t really care about missing an important phone call – you care about how “sexy” your iPhone look and how “cool” you are…
Grow up
Gawd that was unbelievably pathetic SK.
@sk,
Give me a bloomin’ break!
MobileMe web app is still not working for me, no matter which browser I use. And this morning, I arose to having two email addresses on my iPhone, one for me.com (which was the only one on there yesterday when I set it up), and another for mac.com under the same username I used for me.com. Sigh.
I agree that it’s not the end of the world and that there’s bigger things in life to worry about, but when I pay $100 for something and it doesn’t work when I try it, I immediately either exchange it for something that works, or return it and get my money back. Apple did disappoint me yesterday and today for poor planning and foresight, as well as no official communication as to when this will be fixed or why it isn’t working as advertised. Ugh.
@ SK
Yeah, and Vista bricked how many PCs that still don’t work right?
WTG, PC fanbiotch!
“Now you’re moving into a market not occupied by fanboys and things gotta work”
please explain windows, palm, blackberry, and most american made cars. thanks.
What big leagues? You can’t be talking about the rest of the mobile market, because they’re all trying desperately to come out with something to compete with the iPhone, even if it just LOOKS like an iPhone. They know they can’t match its user experience.
The bad news for the other cell phone makers is that the worst they can say is that Apple had a few glitches on opening day. That’s not going to help them.
“What big leagues? You can’t be talking about the rest of the mobile market, because they’re all trying desperately to come out with something to compete with the iPhone”
Oh yes, couldn’t agree more. If Apple sells 10,000,000 phones this year they’ll have 1% of the market. THIS IS HUGE!!!!! I bet everyone is scared… As you mention, this is REAL BAD for other cell phone makers who only have 100 million phones out there or so…
“@ Woody
Yeah, and Vista bricked how many PCs that still don’t work right?
Who cares. We’re not talking about Vista. We’re talking about the iPhone. I don’t care anything about vista. You don’t justify your product being garbage by pointing out the flaws of another…
” WTG, PC fanbiotch!”
Yeah. I’ll remember that as I type this on my Macbook 2.0. Later on I’ll be home and use either my Dual Core Mini or G5 1.8 iMac (or maybe my old 14″ iBook). I’ll talk on my 8 Gig iphone and around the house I use my 16 GIG iPod Touch….
But I guess to a loser like you everyone who don’t kiss Steve Job’s ass is a “PC fanbiotch”
Typical Apple Fanboy Losers. So Brainwashed you can’t be objective… If you had jobs, perhap you can explain to you boss why you missed an important phone call “Gimme a break boss, I’ll get your call in a day or so”….
“Typical Apple Fanboy Losers. So Brainwashed you can’t be objective… If you had jobs, perhap you can explain to you boss why you missed an important phone call “Gimme a break boss, I’ll get your call in a day or so”….”
You’re right. The insults are fun. But they are stlll not working (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu).
Take a moment.
You only have a moment left in your life.
Please tell us about your contribution. Your ability to burp the alphabet will not be allowed. Sorry, burpboy.
SK,
You own a lot of Apple products.
You are proud you are not an Apple fanboy.
Unfortunately for you, this does preclude you from being an obnoxious asshole. Please seek therapy.
please explain windows, palm, blackberry, and most american made cars. thanks.
How are these a factor in iPhone’s market?
“You only have a moment left in your life. Please tell us about your contribution.”
Contributions
SK : I get up in the morning and go to work. I work hard to be the best I can be. I am the proud father of 3 wonderful children.
Ampar : I don’t have time for my kids or a job. I spend 12 hours a day dreaming about Apple and posting on MDN. And I stand in line for days to buy the next Apple product….
Burping the alphabet would be more productive than what 99.99% of you obnoxious brainwashed morons do during the course of a day.. Yes, I have several Macs, they are computers… I have an iPhone a 2 iPods, they are an phone and mp3 players.
To you, they are orgasmic religious experiences that you must dream about all day / everyday as you wait the next instruction from you messiah in Cupertino…
i will use small words as not to confuse you….
“”Now you’re moving into a market not occupied by fanboys and things gotta work”
please explain windows, palm, blackberry, and most american made cars. thanks.”
if the normal larger market sans fanboys means “it has to work,” then why is it that these same markets are dominated by those products listed, which often fail to work.
it is not about the iphone market, it is a over arching question about the higher level claim he made about the nature of markets in general. since there is between little and no evidence that these larger “non-fanboy” markets require that things work, his logic is called into question.
see how that works?
secondly, Apple is well known for making things that *do* just work. the news is not dominated by windows failures, because we expect windows to fail. when Apples servers buckle, it makes the news. because it is different. we don’t expect it. so the second part of the assumption about the iPhone market also appears to be wrong.
feel free to ask again if i went too fast for you….
Ampar: i prefer the Dao De Ching, but art of war is nice too.
SK: no, you assume that Apple products are these things to us. each thing that you have stated here appears to be based on assumptions. like the assumption that your opinion is valid.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> it isn’t. if you dislike what you read here so much, the answer is simple. don’t read it, and don’t post. it is like magic! it will just go away….
Local AT&T;stores are all out of iPhone by afternoon Friday, but I checked online and most Calif. Apple stores still have plenty. Seems they undershipped them to AT&T;stores. I got my from an AT&T;store since I already have an account but not an iPhone. Out of the store at 9 AM. Got the online activation working around 11 on the 3rd try. At least It’s not that bad. I didn’t have to call AT&T;.
Super Monkey Ball, Molecules, Zip Code, Air Hockey, Texas Hold’em.
I downloaded and played with more apps on this ‘phone’ in 1 night than the entire 8 months I was forced to carry a Crackberry from work.
@eldernorm
I got it the virus dump…what is your take on that, MDN?
you bitch about Apple and you can’t even keep your website up or safe, and the users of your website getting virus dumped on them?
Correction: does not
Darn me to heck.
Just got mine from the 3rd Street Promenade. I was around #20 in line this morning but I guess from the fiasco from yesterday, tickets for around 20 to 25 from last night were given first priority to finally activate their phones they had purchased so I had to wait some.
@SK
The “fanboys” were the only ones waiting in line on the first day. The “general public” won’t buy the phone till the next day, when everything is working perfectly.
I feel sorry for people who depend on their phone for business who should just “quit whining” and accept it….
Huh??
If you depend on your phone for business, then you would have had to have been seven shades of crazy to do anything on the first day of JesusPhone 3G!
1) You should have known that the media had been hyping the thing for nearly six weeks: on that basis, demand was likely to be high.
2) The thing was being launched in a couple of dozen markets simultaneously which was going to exacerbate any problems.
3) Even if Apple allowed for the fact that maybe 1,000,000 phones would get activated globally in a single day, they can’t be blamed if that figure gets exceeded by 25-50%. And you – as a businessman who relies on his phone should understand that you can’t predict how the product might perform on Day One because there are too many variables – including the weather and how long people are willing to queue – involved in the whole thing.
4) As a businessman, you’ve made the decision to put your need to be the first on the block with an iPhone 3G ahead of your customers’ or colleagues’ need to communicate with you. Doesn’t that make you just a bit of a dick?
In short, anyone who relies on their phone for business purposes and understands the nature of early-adopter risk (i.e. anyone who has lived through the last 25 years, has functional long-term memory and the ability to learn from history) wouldn’t have been in the queue yesterday. And anyone who was deserved to confront the harsh, unforgiving reality of commercial Darwinism.
MDN is such an irrelevance. 205 comments on its most comented story! Wow. That is like nobody!!
So, another thread another troll (yes I am talking to you, SK).
You know, if you want anyone to take you seriously, probably the first step would be to activate your spell checker… though this will do nothing for your very, very tenuous grasp of the English language. Nor will it do anything to remedy the fact that you aren’t really saying anything at all.
I disagree with you (willie G)
SK is not a troll, he’s (or she’s) simply stating their opinion. Yes I disagreed with it (see my reply) but there’s no rule that you can’t criticizes Apple when they stumble.
For the record, people who depend on their phone to make a living are smart enough NOT to buy/exchange it on the first day. Even if it’s from Apple!
Those who are not smart enough, well Darwinism will take care of them.
@ ElderNorm
Yea, it tried to download on my MPB also. I’ve had problems with MDN for a long time getting at least 2 pop-unders everytime MDN loads. Then this. Their webmaster did send a link to get something that will stop the crap pop-unders. “Also, If you wish, you can simply opt-out of receiving the ads here:
https://admin.valueclickmedia.com/optout/index.html“
They also wanted a screen shot but I did not capture one.
Bad form for MDN: make money for ads and infect PC people!
look for a store credit of like $15.00 for anything in the iTunes store, including iPhone apps soon!
Wow, pretty hefty situation there SK, seems like you are trying to kick the fanboys.
I certainly do think that once you get something with the Apple logo on it, you do indeed turn your back on poor performance. Performance can be a tough measurement as it involves both hardware and software. Certainly on the hardware point of view there has been justified criticism towards Apple. I am thinking specifically on how long they took to break the GHZ cycle way back when. I also think that design has an influence on performance, albeit it is sometimes hard to directly measure. Where software is concerned, that is where Apple shines, and yes it is a fair to compare it to flavours of Windows, and even Linus. For me that is where performance counts, the comfort and ease of the OS interface is far superior to the in your face go through the hoops attitude of Windows.
Some people want to open their machines up to put in the fastest chipset, video cards, sound boards cause they feel the need for speed. Others want a smooth ride. The OS interface is a smooth ride and it does perform well.
I also think you make a good point about the new challenge with Apple expanding it’s market, but seriously nearly every device infrastructure conceived by man is prone to failure at some point. Highways get traffic congestion, electricity services get cut off, car models are recalled. On the short term yes it is a nuisance but the public does tolerate it. It certainly helps put some perspective on it by expanding the horizon.
So if as you say Apple bricks the iPhone for a couple of days but only a couple of days of the year does it sound so bad?
Traffic can get congested in some places on a daily basis, but a few minutes everyday does not stop people from driving. Electricity can be cut off too, but over the course of a year it is pretty darn reliable.
I think other readers have made the point about early adopters vs. business people.
You set a standard calling people obnoxious brainwashed morons and pointing out that it would be more productive to blurp out the alphabet than what 99.9% of us do during the course of the day. So here goes.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
Of course a good standard allows for comparing. I am sure a Windoze user would end up with:
abc {reboot} def {blue screen of death ghi {allow or deny?} jkl {not responding} MNO {caps lock on} well that’s most of it, I know the rest honest, I just have to upgrade my machine.
@SK
So, tell me oh wise one, how much of your pathetic day have you spent reading (and commenting on) fanboy comments?
You’re a closet fanboy! Nah nah nah nah nah!
Funny how the whiners and moaners get the airtime. —Macaday
This is planet earth, afterall.
@The Other Steve,
I don’t object to SK or anyone else offering up a different point of view, nor do I believe that doing so warrants being labeled a troll.
What does seal the deal is all of the unnecessary, blatant, crude, and insulting language he chooses to use to express that opinion. How does that make him not a troll?
I think your reading comprehension skills are suspect.
Emeryville, CA Bay Street Apple Store 6:30pm today. I was not allowed entry into the store. I was told only those on line for the iPhone may enter tonight. I said I was just going to look at the display iPhone and buy at another time. No entry allowed. I asked if can I look at a MBP or Mac Pro system ondisplay. No entry allowed. I told him I was a shareholder and it seemed wrong not to let customers look at merchandise or, god forbid, buy a high margin MBP or Mac Pro system. No entry allowed. All store resources are being used for the people on line for iPhones.
Has this happened anywhere else? Do you think this policy is fair? Couldn’t they have 2 or 3 staff dedicated to other Apple customers? The non-iPhone buyer or browser was out of luck in Emeryville, CA tonight.
Wait for the anal-ists now to jack up the estimate so high that 5 million sold in one month will look bad and the stock will tank. Screw them all, I hope Apple make $billions regardless of the anal-ists and dumba– investors that sell.
As if the MobileMe name (not service/features) isn’t gay enough, the MobileMe hard drive icon when you connect via Mac is a faggy purpleish-pink, replacing the cool blue .Mac icon!!! What are you doing Apple!!!
Yoo-hoo! NUFAN … your handle is sooooooooo gay.
NUFAN…
My iDisk icon is the same as it’s always been: disk with a blue network globe on top of it.
Maybe your Mac is trying to tell you something about yourself.
Try and come to terms with yourself: grow a moustache, join a local amateur theatre company, buy a small dog. We’ll all support you as you make this major lifestyle change.
…That Skylark is the coolest name either, but I will agree with NUFAN, even though I’ll agree his name is sooooooooo gay too, they ARE changing the icon to a light purple drive with a white cloud. If yours hasn’t change, don’t worry, it will. I personally don’t think it looks too great, but everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
MCCFR – I was the one complaining because it looked gay. Now, if I were gay, I would say, “Oh pretty! I love MobileMe It’s purple and fruity looking!”
Skyfag, I mean lark – I play bass for a band called, No Use For a Name, NUFAN. Check me out on Wikipedia fag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Use_for_a_Name
“Huh??
If you depend on your phone for business, then you would have had to have been seven shades of crazy to do anything on the first day of JesusPhone 3G!”
You’re right. Expecting a simple painless seamless upgrade experience from Apple is just too much. We should expect a meltdown from Apple each time new phone software is released (which was the problem, not new sales).
Hi This is MCCFR retainer based tech support for Mac servers. Sorry we can’t get to your call right now, but we just don’t think that fast and effective service is important. We really don’t care if you think otherwise, after all we are the IT experts, you’re only the customer. We’ll get back to you when we’re not so overloaded. In the meantime, please refrain from transacting any business.
The Mac has faced the cold hard reailty of Commercial Darwinisim, and this kind of attitude is the reason why.
“Try and come to terms with yourself: grow a moustache, join a local amateur theatre company, buy a small dog. We’ll all support you as you make this major lifestyle change.”
Owning a Mac has always implied ambiguous sexuality. If you got as far as “Switching” to a Mac, your next “Switching” step should be a small and inevitable one. You worship your Mac and all things Apple, now stop fighting your urges and start worshipping in the church of man love.
NUFAN,
I checked out Wikipedia and your website. Your band was classified as punk rock. That makes me think of The Ramones. Yuck. I don’t understand some of these genres.
But in this case, you guys actually have talent. Everything I heard sounded pretty darn good. I imagine you would be fun to see live. Thanks for the info.
I went to an Apple store on saturday at 9am and waited in line for about 20 minutes. Within 10 minutes after that I had my phone and was calling my wife with it to let her know I was on the way. They had plenty of iphones, but no black 16gb ones, which was surprising. I would have thought that the white 16 gb one(which I bought) would have been the hot seller. Kudos to apple though for keeping things very well organized with all of the chaos of the last few days. Had I made the mistake of going to an ATT store it would have probably been a different story all together.
@shen fway.
“feel free to ask again if i went too fast for you….”
Glad you’re using a lower case ‘i’.