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The long awaited iPhone 3G was released on Friday, July 11th. But what should have been a happy and joyous day for iPhone fans, ended up being an exercise in frustration for many.

After waiting in line outside of Apple Stores for hours (or even days), some consumers then spent up to 7 hours inside because of "network problems" that slowed or even halted the activation of new iPhones.


The iPhone 3G line outside the Manhattan Apple Store on 14th Street at 12:52PM.
Estimated wait time was ~4 hours.


Apparently Apple's authentication servers weren't prepared to handle the amount of global network traffic from new iPhone 3G activations. Network slowdowns were first reported after stores opened in Europe. The network then came to a halt after US East Coast stores opened. By the time American West Coast stores had started selling iPhones, Apple's servers just couldn't take it anymore and started crashing. It was AT&T's insistence that all phones get activated in the store that caused the problem. During last year's iPhone 1.0 launch Apple had everyone activate their own phone at home through iTunes.


Fanboys try beat the heat with umbrellas while waiting in line for an iPhone 3G.


Some customers were even sent home with a new iPhone and instructions on how to finish activating the phone at home or even worse... a rain check. This definitely made quite a few people mad.

"I skipped work and waited in line from 12 noon to 2AM to get my boyfriend a new iPhone only to walk away with rain check slip," Paul Hahn told MethodShop.com. "The [authentication] servers were down most of the day and [an Apple store employee] told me I should to come back [Sunday] morning. This sucks. I'm so angry and so hungry right now." Paul also said that employees at the Apple Store were were giving away Apple umbrellas and waters to try to keep the crowd happy.



The new iPhone 3G.


Unfortunately, Apple's network problems also caused headaches for original iPhone and iPod Touch owners who tried to upgrade to the new 2.0 software. "After one of my officemates came back from his lunch hour with a new iPhone, I tried upgrading the software on my old iPod Touch," said Collin Pisarra, a graphic designer in Manhattan. "I really wanted to check out the new App Store but I guess Apple's network problems messed up [my iPod Touch]. It got bricked. I hope I can restore it when Apple's servers are back online. Right now I'm getting an error message that says: [We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (type -9838).]"


Networking problems left many users with both iPhones and iPod Touches that couldn't complete the 2.0 update process.


Apple wasn't responding to requests for comments, but a spokesman for AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States, said the problems were caused by iTunes servers and referred further questions to Apple.


Network problems caused many iPhone and iPod Touch users to see this iTunes error screen when attempting to update their device to the new 2.0 software.


Earlier this week, Apple also had problems with the relaunch of their data service now called MobileMe (it was previously called iTools and .Mac). The MobileMe service is designed to synchronize a user's personal data across devices, including the iPhone, but many users were denied access to their accounts this week, including Frank Accarrino.

"I've been trying to upload pictures from iPhoto to my .Mac website for the past few days but it's offline. I can't even get to my Mac mail. I bet Steve Jobs is pissed right now," Frank said.

Apple is usually known for flawless product launch events. Let's hope Apple solves these network issues for next time. It's estimated that 1 million iPhone 3G models were sold in the U.S. this weekend.


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Labels: apple, iphone, ipod, tech news