Opher BanarieHas Apple Lost Its Magic?
July 12th 2008 12:25
After years of being the center of technology marketing wizardry, Apple Inc. may have faced its largest marketing failure ever with the launch of the iPhone 3G yesterday. Expecting mass turnout of the Apple faithful so wait in lines to buy a phone is one thing; having server, software and procedural failures while making those sales is quite another.
When the original iPhone was introduced, customers went home with it still unactivated. Using their computer or following instructions over the phone, they were able to activate their new iPhone at home. This time around, Apple decided that all new iPhones would leave the store activated. No reasoning was given by Apple as to why this change was made. Was it to prevent iPhones from selling on eBay for thousands of dollars? Maybe an intent to have a registered owner associated with each serial number to preclude re-sale?
What we do know now is that the activiation process, which was supposed to take 10 minutes, took as long as two hours for those who waited. And many who weren't going to wait were given the phones unactivated and told to follow an at-home process much like last years'. Apple blamed the delays on server problems.
But that's not all that happened. Owners of the original iPhone were able to download new iPhone 2.0 software which should have given them much of the functionality of the new iPhone 3G. However, many reported that the new software was mired by the same activation failures that new iPhone owners were facing at Apple and AT&T stores. That resulted in existing owners' phones being turned into expensive electronic bricks. OUCH!
Will Apple be able to recover and continue to get lines of people waiting to buy the next cool gadget they announce? Only time will tell. For now, if you are still thinking about buying an iPhone I suggest you wait a week or two. In addition to getting one in under two hours, you may just find that other options are more appealing.
For more background and technical details about the issues faced on Friday, check out the CNET Apple Blog here.
When the original iPhone was introduced, customers went home with it still unactivated. Using their computer or following instructions over the phone, they were able to activate their new iPhone at home. This time around, Apple decided that all new iPhones would leave the store activated. No reasoning was given by Apple as to why this change was made. Was it to prevent iPhones from selling on eBay for thousands of dollars? Maybe an intent to have a registered owner associated with each serial number to preclude re-sale?
What we do know now is that the activiation process, which was supposed to take 10 minutes, took as long as two hours for those who waited. And many who weren't going to wait were given the phones unactivated and told to follow an at-home process much like last years'. Apple blamed the delays on server problems.
But that's not all that happened. Owners of the original iPhone were able to download new iPhone 2.0 software which should have given them much of the functionality of the new iPhone 3G. However, many reported that the new software was mired by the same activation failures that new iPhone owners were facing at Apple and AT&T stores. That resulted in existing owners' phones being turned into expensive electronic bricks. OUCH!
Will Apple be able to recover and continue to get lines of people waiting to buy the next cool gadget they announce? Only time will tell. For now, if you are still thinking about buying an iPhone I suggest you wait a week or two. In addition to getting one in under two hours, you may just find that other options are more appealing.
For more background and technical details about the issues faced on Friday, check out the CNET Apple Blog here.
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