iBrick?
Posted by Stropp on July 12, 2008
It looks like MMORPG developers aren't the only players in the launch day blues game.
Apple has had a long time to prepare for the launch of the new iPhone, they knew how popular this phone was going to be, and according to some reports have held back sales on the first day to create a 'sold out on the first day' spin for their future marketing efforts. They've been working crunch times to get everything in order. Sound familiar?
Yet apparently the software update couldn't handle a few hundred million customers attempting to update their newly purchased iPhones with the latest firmware. The result? The final step of the update not completing and that really expensive piece of sexy sexy hardware becoming as sexy as a brick.
I reckon that every MMORPG developer in the free world, and a few who aren't so free, are jumping up and down with glee at this moment, shouting from the rooftops, "I told you it was hard!"
Except for the devs who've just bought a new iPhone.
I got in line at 8am. There were 50-ish people in front of me.
I got INTO the store at 2pm, and got my phone at around 2:30.
It was an absolutely inappropriate launch. I was showing the store manager, on my phone, reports of apple stores all around the nation sending people home to do the activation. They wouldn’t do it.
Turns out the reason wasn’t just the iTunes store going down. In addition, the EZPay service that Apple used to check out and take payment, and do the actual transfer of data and service was down. That’s why it was taking so long. That, and they were only bringing in 2 people at a time.
However once I finally got it working, the iPhone 3G is probably my favorite bit of tech I own. It’s what the original iPhone should have been. It’s freakin fantastic — speed is fast, new apps are amazing, and while I initially thought that the GPS and 3G features were not that big of a deal, the way that they integrate into all the apps is actually a HUGE deal for me, and makes it a must have.
Also, the sync with Mobile Me and over-air pushing is freaking awesome.
Getting back to the point of your post though, I agree. This shows that without adequate preparation, even the mighty can fall on a launch day. Keep in mind though that the servers were only down for a few hours, and by 2 or 3pm on launch day, everything was fine. Good idea by Apple to pick a weekday, so any mishaps affect the least number of people due to work, and as soon as they get all the kinks worked out they can have a smooth weekend.
I don’t know about the withholding of phones though. Apple stores had hundreds, even thousands of units. AT+T stores, however, only had tens or dozens (24-50 by most counts), and were selling out within the hour. Seems like AT+T are the ones who actually are trying to up the demand.
I read about the queues at the stores too. Pretty huge. I must admit my inner geek is tempted by the iPhone, but I can’t quite justify it. I have a Nokia N95 and I barely use the features it supplies… maybe when it’s time to upgrade phones…
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