July 11th, 2008
As Servers Crash, In-Store Activation Frustrates iPhone 3G Buyers
By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
I commented on this earlier - I was concerned that the in-store activation would take a long time, or worse, totally fail. Looking at how complex it was going to be, it seemed obvious. And now real-life experiences show I was right.
With the first iPhone, you could simply walk into a store, and walk out with it - no activation. Activation was done at home via iTunes. The in-store activation is designed to reduce hacking. After all AT&T’s monopoly on the device is definitely a good thing for them.
While Apple said the process would take 15 - 20 minutes, it was taking upwards of 30 minutes, and you can see the lines wouldn’t move as fast as last year.
Not only that, the demand for iPhones is so high, Apple has confirmed that the iPhone activation servers have now crashed under the load and are down. Buyers are, at least for now, being sent home without activated iPhones and have been told they should activate at home … much later, it appears.
The word from AT&T:
We have had reports that customers attempting to download new iTunes 7.7 software to their new iPhone may get an error message saying “page not found.” We have reported this issue to Apple. While Apple works to resolve this issue, we are asking customers to sync their newly activated phone later at home.
Of course, since we know the activation process includes unbricking the phone (see my earlier story), that part still needs to be done.
Ah, yes, the joys of being an early adopter.
Update: BTW, if you want to update your original iPhone to 2.0, you might also end up with an issue because of the server problems. Recommendation: wait until this all sorts itself out.
T says:
All news reports have failed to mention that if you were a previous iphone user or a previous ATT customer who has bought an iPhone you are now WITHOUT SERVICE! I have no lan line — I cannot even call apple to complain. I will have to get back in line.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Michael Santo says:
I’m guessing you deactivated your old iPhone and left with an unactivated new iPhone 3G? Or did I miss something? I can’t find the text, but I could swear I read there was a workaround, using your old SIM, but I can’t find the info now.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Rick says:
I went to sync my iphone and asked whether I wanted to update software. Big mistake I should have said no but Said ok and now the phone has crashed and I cannot use it. It will not sync with itunes at all and so it is unfunctional.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:32 am
iCrap Blows Chunk$ says:
That’ll teach you idiots to buy iCrap!
July 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Jonathan Eisen says:
I am getting an error when I try to upgrade to the new software. It tries to connect to the iTunes store and then crashes. And then the phone will only work for emergency calls. Lovely
July 11th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Bryan Buchs says:
I left the store without activating my iPhone. Back home, while I was plugged into my laptop trying to activate it, I received a series of text messages (3) from AT&T. I’ve got a working 3G phone, but can’t connect to my mac to sync up yet
July 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Carmel Barbie says:
I had ATT port my phone number. Waited in the store for the activation to complete for 40 mins. Then was told to take the phone home. It has been linked to itunes since 9am with no change. My tmobile is disconnected and I cant even set up voicemail w/ATT because you need itunes to do that. Why is everything connected in this phone(sim card, voicemail, activation, blah blah blah) !!! rhetorical question… no need for an answer.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Joe Carson says:
Made the mistake of trying to update. They have our phone numbers. It would have been nice to get a text message informing of the problem and warning of possible delays. Maybe update apple.com with an alert. Instead I have to google the problem and find out from bloggers. Thanks, Apple.
Two hours into my phone being a brick, and I still see no notification on Apple’s website.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Chris says:
Been trying to upgrade since 10am going on 5 hours now and still getting the server down message. APPLE BLOWS DONKEY HOSE
July 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Keith says:
I too have a brick for a phone - I travel all the time and only hook up to iTunes at my office in the morning. I hooked up agreed to the upgrade and now cannot go anywhere. Phone is dead, I am on the road, I cannot check in for my flight until get to the airport, cannot call my wife to let her know my phone is dead, cannot get my contact or calendar to see who and when I am meeting………….. Apple totally screwed this up, us old phone users should have been able to get this software upgrade weeks ago, not the same day as they release the new phone that can only be activated by them.
Once I get an opportunity I will be dropping this brick out of a window and going back to a Blackberry………. Apple you suck
July 11th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Rob Raskovsky says:
Apple you truly do suck.
I brought the iphone 3G in England at 1pm today. Got back to activate it, and i had iTunes error -8938 which is a “Server Unavailable” error. When this sorted itself out at 4pm, i was getting an error -4. This apparently is a “Server Timeout” error. How this differs from -8938 I don’t know. When I eventually managed to get hold of apple tech support, after waiting about an hour on the phone, they told me that due to unprecedented demand, the apple servers had crashed. Engineers were working on the problem and would not leave Apple until the issue was resolved. Tell me something I don’t already know.
Apple you truly do mes things up. The same thing happened on Nov 9th here in the UK when the iPhone was released. Did they not learn then?
I hope Apple agrees to compensation for their dedicated fans.
Personally I will no longer be buying Apple products.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Sheep! says:
I think I’ll go buy an overpriced, useless iBrick!!!!!
July 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Roger Galespie says:
It’s so nice to see there are quite a few IFools in the world!
July 18th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Rich says:
Tried to warn my Friends about the i Crap!! Bought one anyway. No 3 g service . Not to mention the crashing. And all the updates .. Biggest piece of Junk on the Market.. BUY INSTINCT instead !!!
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:02 am