“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.