Okay, so you know that whole
blog post
I did a few days ago saying how I
wasn’t going to buy an iPhone 3G and
listing all my reasons? Well, scratch that. I
mean, come on people, you knew there was no way
I was going to let iPhone day pass without
buying a brand new iPhone, right? :)
Ok...so in my defense, I had no intentions of buying
an iPhone when I went to bed last night. I had
downloaded the iPhone 2.0 software on my original
iPhone using the “backdoor” method posted
by
MacRumors.com and was very
pleased with the new functionality and the App
Store. So, I set my alarm for a regular wake up
time for Friday morning and figured if I
happened to get up early, then I’d head
down to the local Apple Store ONLY for the
purposes of documenting the event for the
website and podcast. Of course, I get up early
and decide to head on down. My entire day is
pretty much
documented on Flickr so if
you want to see the pictures that go along,
I’d suggest you check out our iPhone 3G
photos.
I arrive at the local Apple Store a little
after 7am an already there are about 100 people in
line in front of me. When the doors open at 8:00 we
make one big jump in the line as the Apple Store lets
in the first 30 people or so, but after that the line
pretty much stalls. We knew that the lines would move
slower than they did last year because AT&T was
mandating that all iPhones be activated and a rate
plan selected in store. It wasn’t clear until
later in the day the seriousness of the activation
problems that were being had in the store. 30 minutes
passed, and only the first few people were slowly
starting to trickle out of the store and only then
were people allowed to go in one for one. We got the
sense that this was not the way things were supposed
to work and the Apple employees started to get
worried. Keep in mind, I’m in Florida and evan
at 8am it was already well on it’s way to 90
degrees. I was standing in line in a suit and in the
sweltering sun.
Speaking of the Apple employees, I have to stay
that they have been a total bright spot to the day.
The Apple Store was totally prepared on their end for
the crowd. They were giving out water, coffee,
umbrellas, and generally doing everything they could
to make the wait in line all the more pleasant. There
were employees going around the line to give out
information on AT&T’s rate plans, verify
that customers had the information they needed, and
tried to get everyone prepared for the activation
process when they went in the store. They were trying
to take care of as many problems out side the store
as possible to minimize needless waiting and make the
activation process as smooth as possible. They also
had a few employees out working the line with the new
iPhone. They were showing off the new features and
allowing people to touch and feel the phone for
themselves. I asked one employee if I could compare
the speed of my iPhone on EDGE with hers on 3G and
she gladly agreed. I typed in cnn.com in both
browsers and was blown away. The 3G iPhone loaded
significantly faster than my iPhone and it was at
this point, about an hour and a half after I got in
line, that I was actually sold on the new iPhone.
Time ticked on and it got later and later. Generally
I like to get to work between 8 and 8:30 but
I’m not really “due in” until 9.
Though my first appointment today was at 10:00 so I
figured that if I didn’t have my phone in hand
by 9:00 then I would be forced to leave the line. at
8:45 I was 26 people away from the door and things
were still crawling along. There was no way that I
was going to be in the store, musth less with the
iPhone activated in time to get to work. So, I had to
leave without my iPhone. I planned to try to return
to the store around lunch time in hopes the crowds
had died down and I could just walk in and pickup an
iPhone, but unfortunately my day got hectic and that
wasn’t an option. I tried calling the Apple
Store several times to get an idea of what type of
stock they had but he lines were constantly busy. By
now the west coast had come online and we were
getting reports via Twitter and the blogosphere that
there were major nation wide activation problems.
Even if I had managed to leave, there was no way I
could have gotten an iPhone and gotten back to work.
Seeing as I worked through lunch I decided to
leave about an hour early at 4:00 and headed back to
the Apple Store. Ironically, when I arrived in line I
was in almost the exact same spot as I was when I
left earlier in the morning. There were about 25-30
people standing between me and the door and it took
nearly an hour just to get inside the store. Once I
was inside the store, we were greeted by more
employees who directed us to accessories and again
confirmed that we had all the information we needed,
and in some cases directed people to AT&T’s
website to verify information. It was another 30
minutes or so of waiting in the store before I
actually got to an employee to activate my iPhone.
The way it was setup they had about 20 employees
around the store with handheld units doing
activation. You would be “assigned” one
who would stay with you one-on-one during the
activation process. My guy, Pete, was very friendly
and we chit chatted about his day while he was
waiting for the first phase of activation. He went
into the back and grabbed my 16GB black iPhone and I
immediately felt at ease. It wasn’t activated,
and it wasn’t bought, but it was in my hands
and I wasn’t leaving the store without it. I
decided to stick with my current rate plan, and just
add the 200 text messages for an extra $5 a month.
Although my iPhone activation went off without a
hitch, it still took about 15 minutes for the
process.
Once this was done, I was directed to another
employee who would activate my phone with iTunes.
This was the part I was dreading because I heard that
this was the major cause for the slow down earlier in
the day. Though much to my surprise, within a minute
I was activated and ready to go. All in all, I spent
more than 4 hours today at the Apple Store, but based
on what I’m reading this wasn’t all
uncommon. Though again, I can’t stress enough
how great the Apple employees were throughout this
entire process. While talking to Pete I was
pleasantly surprised when he told me that everyone
seemed really cool and they hadn’t really had
any problem customers. People seemed to understand
there was going to be some craziness and it was quite
obvious that the Apple folks were working their butts
off. Everything that went wrong today was on
AT&T’s part and Apple was ready and did
everything they could to smooth out the process.
It’s just beyond me why Apple agreed to get
involved with this iPhone in store activation process
in the first place. I understand AT&T’s
legitimate concerns with subsidized phones being let
into the wild without a contract, but there has got
to be a better way. I can’t imagine Apple
letting this mess continue next year.
It’s too late and I’m too exhausted to
get into my first impressions of the iPhone right
now. In a nutshell, I like it and it’s pretty
much working as expected. Look for a more in-depth
review to follow in the coming days and I’m
sure I’ll have a whole lot more to say on our
next episode of the Podcast which will likely come
out sometime next week. In the mean tine,
check out the flickr photos
for a walkthrough of my experience at the Apple
Store and some comparisons between the iPhone
and iPhone 3G.
