iPhone 3G Rollout Flops Down

Orchestrated like a symphony.

Get It Try It

CUPERTINO (Rixstep) -- Apple rolled out their new 3G iPhone worldwide on one day - and at the same time let current iPhone users to upgrade their software. All through the iTunes server network.

Oops.

Don't Upgrade!

Because of server issues AppleInsider are advising people to not attempt software upgrades at this time. Earlier iPhones have to be wiped clean as part of the upgrade process, at which point the devices become unusable until the new software is downloaded and activated.

Europe Sellout

European stores were sold out before the stores in the US even opened.

Nightmare

AppleInsider are calling it a 'nightmare'.

'Thousands of new iPhone 3G buyers around the world were stuck Friday with iPhones that couldn't function or make calls as the iTunes servers required to fully activate them experienced a high-tech meltdown [sic] and ultimately fell offline.'

['High-tech meltdown'? Ed.]

'The issues almost immediately soured the US launch of the much anticipated handset as the backlog of activations kept thousands of other customers waiting in long lines outside of retail stores much longer than they or Apple had anticipated.'

People in the remote north of Scandinavia queued for up to twelve hours because of the server issues.

21 Countries 24 Hours, Onsite Activation

Last year's first introduction of the device was staggered. It was first released in the US and successively in other countries. This year's 3G launch was nearly simultaneous in 21 countries. Apple's web servers simply collapsed.

And this time around the devices are activated before the customers leave the store.

Oops.

ImmobileMe

Adding insult to injury Apple planned to have MobileMe up and running at the same time but typically have run into any number of issues there as well.

3G Complaints

Something may also be wrong with iPhone 3G hardware - judging from complaints already lodged. Customers report their displays having a warmer yellowish tone. This leads pundits to suspect a manufacturing flaw as Apple insist both generations of the device use the exact same display.