Staff Techdrunk 
The launch of Apple Inc.’s much-anticipated new iPhone was marred by technical problems and issues. The new phone went on sale in 21 countries worldwide on Friday, creating a global burden on the iTunes servers. It turned into an information-technology meltdown as customers were unable to get their phones working.
People waited at counters in the stores to get the phones activated, as huge lines built behind them. Eager customers had already camped out for several hours in line to be amongst the first ones with the new phone. The iPhone 3G is an update of the original one which was launched a year ago and the new phone features a faster Internet access and a navigation chip.
Here are some recent reports from the media throughout the world.
Kenny Pichardo, one of the first customers who bought the iPhone 3G at an AT&T store in the New York borough of Queens said it took the store half an hour to get the phone activated. He too had camped out overnight to be the first customer and that boded badly for the approximately 70 people after him in line.
“It’s such grief and aggravation,” said Frederick Smalls, an insurance broker in Whitman, Mass., after spending two hours on the phone with Apple and AT&T Inc., trying to get his new iPhone to work.
Michael Coe spokesman for AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S. said, “there was a global problem with Apple’s iTunes servers that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store, as had been planned. Instead, employees were telling buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers”.
At the Apple’s flagship store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, customers were waiting at the counter for at least 20 minutes to get their new phones activated. The problem extended to owners of the previous iPhone model too. A software update released for that phone on Friday morning required the phone to be reactivated through iTunes. But the iTunes servers were equally hard to reach from home, leaving the phones unusable except for emergency calls.
“It’s a mess,” said freelance photographer Giovanni Cipriano, who updated his first-generation iPhone only to find it unusable. When the first iPhone went on sale a year ago, customers performed the whole activation procedure at home, freeing store employees to focus on sales. But the new model is subsidized by carriers, and Apple and AT&T therefore planned to activate all phones in-store to get customers on a contract.
The iPhone has been widely lauded for its ease of use and rich features, but Apple is a newcomer to the cell-phone business, and it has definitely committed some mistakes. When Apple Inc. launched the first iPhone in the U.S. a year ago, it initially priced the phones high, at $499 (8GB) and $599 (16GB), then cut the price by $200 just 10 weeks later, throwing early buyers for a loop.
Roll-outs to other countries were slow, as Apple tried to get carriers on board with its unusual pricing scheme, which included monthly fees to Apple. The business model of the new phone follows industry norms, and the price is lower: $199 or $299 in the U.S.
On Thursday, Apple had problems with the launch of a new data service, MobileMe. The service is designed to synchronize a user’s personal data across devices, including the iPhone, but many users were denied access to their accounts.
Enthusiasm was high, ahead of the Friday morning launch of the new phone.
Alex Cavallo, 24, was one of hundreds lined up at the Fifth Avenue store, just as he had been a year ago for the original iPhone. He sold that one recently on eBay in anticipation of the new one. In the meantime, he has been using another phone, which felt “uncomfortable.”
“The iPhone is just a superior user experience,” he said. The phone also proved a decent investment for him: He bought the old model for $599 and sold it for $570.
Nick Epperson, a 24-year-old grad student, spent the night outside an AT&T store in Atlanta, keeping his cheer up with bags of Doritos, three games of Scrabble and two packs of cigarettes. Asked why he was waiting in line, he responded simply “Chicks dig the iPhone.”
iPhone fever was strong even in Japan, where consumers are used to tech-heavy phones that do restaurant searches, e-mail, music downloads, reading digital novels and electronic shopping. More than 1,000 people lined up at the Softbank Corp. store in Tokyo and the phone quickly sold out.
“Just look at this obviously innovative design,” Yuki Kurita, 23, said as he emerged from buying his iPhone, carrying bags of clothing and a skateboard he had used as a chair during his wait outside the Tokyo store. “I am so thrilled just thinking about how I get to touch this.”
The phone went on sale first in New Zealand, where hundreds of people lined up outside stores to snap it up right at midnight – 8 am. Thursday in New York.
“Steve Jobs knows what people want,” Web developer Lucinda McCullough told the Christchurch Press newspaper, referring to Apple’s chief executive. “And I need a new phone.”
In Germany, sales were brisk at local carrier T-Mobile’s stores, particularly in Munich, Hamburg and Cologne, said spokeswoman Marion Kessing.
