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Another year, more iPhone issues

Apple had hoped that the launch of its new iPhone -- the iPhone 3G S would go more smoothly this year than it did last year.  Last year saw a launch that while successful in sales volume was disastrous in terms of public relations.  Last year saw many customers unable to activate their new phones as Apple's servers buckled under the high traffic load.  This year early indications on launch morning were that all was going smoothly, thanks in part to an early release of the OS update, allowing customers of the older 3G model to update early in  hopes of easing network stress.

However, Apple's networks were yet again shown to be lacking with many users experiencing trouble activating their new phones.  Some customers were met with the following message during the activation process.
Your activation requires additional time to complete.  Due to the current volumes, it may take up to 48 hours to resolve your issue.
According to customers unable to activate, Apple later sent the following email to them:
Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you'll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team
Nonetheless, the issues represent another headache for Apple.  Kevin Mobley, a software performance expert at The Ian Thomas Group warns that the issues could hurt Apple's brand image.  He suggests, "Going forward, as Apple presumably gets deals with other carriers and grows the iPhone user base, they'll have to determine if iTunes is really the best solution for activation."

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itunes suks
By aguilpa1 on 6/22/2009 9:42:41 AM , Rating: 5
a glorified music player has no business being the required tool to activate a phone or even manage it. Don't forget Quicktime because there is NO installing or upgrading of iTunes unless you also install and upgrade quicktime.




RE: itunes suks
By xti on 6/22/09, Rating: 0
RE: itunes suks
By tlampen on 6/22/2009 12:23:34 PM , Rating: 2
well said
Thank you!


RE: itunes suks
By sprockkets on 6/22/2009 1:20:27 PM , Rating: 2
Quicktime is a required component of iTunes. It, uh, kinda needs it to play video, cause, you know, it has all the video codecs and crap to play .mov and .mp4 videos.

Nice try though.


RE: itunes suks
By xti on 6/22/2009 2:46:37 PM , Rating: 2
it was referring to iTunes, after activation.

nice try though.


RE: itunes suks
By sprockkets on 6/22/2009 5:16:19 PM , Rating: 1
If you were you should have said so, since he was complaining about having to install and update quicktime, not itunes.

Your -1 post confirms this to be the case.

Nice try though.


RE: itunes suks
By xti on 6/22/2009 5:56:07 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
If you were you should have said so, since he was complaining about having to install and update quicktime, not itunes.


quote:
itunes suks


Nice try though.


RE: itunes suks
By sprockkets on 6/22/2009 5:19:05 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
it was referring to iTunes, after activation.


Oh and btw, "it," do you lack gender?


RE: itunes suks
By Lord 666 on 6/22/2009 5:34:51 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
It puts the lotion in the basket


My Experience Sucked
By JasonPainter on 6/22/2009 9:37:08 AM , Rating: 2
Well I bought two of these phones via pre-order from the apple website. One activated instantly upon hooking up itunes, the other did not. After repeated calls and 24 hours I was told to do a hard reset on the phone on it activated. Now the other phone is broken because the Voice Activation won't work. They tell me to go to the nearest apple store 45 miles away or they will send me a replacement at MY COST, 31.80. I'm not happy.

Oh, and I did not receive any 30 dollar credit for my hassle on the phone that would not activate either.




RE: My Experience Sucked
By JasonMick (blog) on 6/22/2009 9:46:35 AM , Rating: 5
While I certainly think the iPhone is a cool product and don't fault you for your purchase, I'd say your experience should be a good one in lowering your expectations from Apple.

The company has some good things going for it (like battery life, form factor, and the App store), but when it comes customer service, policies, and price Apple gives its customer more screws than a hardware store.


RE: My Experience Sucked
By Lord 666 on 6/22/2009 9:50:26 AM , Rating: 5
Seriously, haven't you learned from any new IT product release and wait a month or two for all of the bugs to be worked out?

Instead of wanting to be the coolest nerd on the block with the latest gear, a little commonsense could have saved you some trouble.


RE: My Experience Sucked
By mondo1234 on 6/22/2009 10:22:55 AM , Rating: 2
Apple reported selling 1 million iphones in the three day weekend. Assuming they activated all of them (which I doubt) it works out to activating (just under) 4 phones per second - on average. Wonder how many returns they will get...


RE: My Experience Sucked
By sprockkets on 6/22/2009 2:38:49 PM , Rating: 2
Probably could have jail broken it, stuck your already working SIM card into the phone, and went on your way.

Activation will work just fine any other day, but again, why does a phone need to be activated when the SIM is your ticket to the network?

Oh, OK, probably because of its voicemail feature. Still, very annoying.


In other words...
By Spivonious on 6/22/2009 9:30:26 AM , Rating: 3
"We screwed up and you couldn't use your phone for a couple of days. Buy some stuff at our store."




RE: In other words...
By RaulF on 6/22/2009 10:30:46 AM , Rating: 2
That's funny, just what i was thinking.


RE: In other words...
By tjr508 on 6/22/2009 10:32:19 AM , Rating: 1
No not really. These messages were mainly to current ATT customers who switched SIM cards. ATT's wait time was fairly short through the weekend and anyone could have called in with their new SIM and IMEI #s and had the problem solved within 5 minutes.


RE: In other words...
By Shadowself on 6/22/2009 11:09:39 AM , Rating: 2
In other words...

AT&T screwed up the activations.

We (Apple) were stupid enough to go exclusively with AT&T.

AT&T won't give you anything for THEIR screw up. We (Apple) will step up and give you something (really not much, but at least something).


Iphone is still behind the times..
By wbhorton on 6/22/2009 10:08:01 AM , Rating: 2
The Iphone still lacking a lot of things that the other phones “Blackberry, Motorola, Etc” have had for a long while now.. Like MMS, Bluetooth peer to peer, or Bluetooth tethering.. I upgraded my phone in Jan. of this year and I looked at all the options “blackberry bold and iphone”. The Bold can upgrade its storage and send MMS, the iphone can’t. Plus the bold will connect to me blackberry server at work, the iphone uses OWA. Granted there a lot of things that I like about the Iphone and there a lot of stuff I don’t like.. I still think that the Iphone has a long ways to go before it can compare to some of the other phone on the market.. I think Iphone should have the option to be able to add a MiroSD card to upgrade it’s storage and they need to fix it where AT&T phones can send MMS.. I thought that it was going to with this release but they still have it blocked.. That is my I rant and rave..




By elmikethemike on 6/22/2009 10:58:21 AM , Rating: 3
What the does your diatribe have to do with the article and topic at hand? People like you crack me up. Don't you ever get tired of whining about the same things over and over again?

It's a lose/lose situation. If Apple does nothing, you people complain. If Apple tries to make it right, you STILL complain. I'm a Verizon customer with an LG Dare, and I think Apple's $30 store credit is a nice gesture.


Well, hell
By rudolphna on 6/22/2009 9:25:58 AM , Rating: 1
I'm going to go buy the 3GS just for the $30 gift card. It just cost too much $$$ monthly to seem worth it for me.




RE: Well, hell
By tlampen on 6/22/2009 12:20:26 PM , Rating: 2
Well thank you for your insightful comment! I think we can all stop posting on this article because we all now know that you think it costs to much money monthly to seem worth it. :~)


By eek2121 on 6/22/2009 2:08:15 PM , Rating: 2
I was at the apple store for 2.5 hours despite having reserved one online. In the end i gave up and left. AT&T had no activation issues on their end, but apple was unable to activate the phone on their end. Because the phone would not activate, they couldn't complete the transaction, therefore i couldn't get a phone.




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