For those who do not know I have never been very much a fan of Apple ever since the Apple 2 was my first programming computer in high school. Since then I have been to rooted in business and the fact Apple’s have never worked with many business applications I have frowned on them. This changed in recent months due to some major enhancements. First the release of the iPhone and visual voice mail. I was not one who rushed out to buy it, I actually laughed and poked fun at many that did. After a few months of great reviews I was talked in to needing one. I absolutly loved the visual voicemanil and ease of use. Next came the MacBook Air. I had recently purchased a few different $2k+ state of the art Sony laptops only to have them fail. Since Mac had recently switched to Intel processors which can run the Mac operating system side-by-side with windows I took the $3,400 plunge. As I write this today I am on my second MacBook Air and enjoy it but recognize its limitations.
Now although I love the visual voicemail the lack of customization of the iPhone has bothered me since I paid way to much for it. So the release of the iPhone 3G and the new software iPhone 2.0 was an exciting moment for me. I woke up early this morning before my flight from Orlando to Dulles and started the new download of iTunes on my computer. The download was slow, to be expected and took almost 20 minutes. Once complete it updated my existing iPhone with version 2.0. I could not wait to dive into it on the 2 hour plane ride. Unfortunaly it would not reactivate so I was stuck with a bricked iPhone. I am furious and head off to the airport to catch my plane.
Arriving in Dulles, I have almost 3 hours before a Branch Manager gathering at Gene Harris’s home in Virginia. I figured I better go get the Genious Bar to take a look at my iPhone. Upon arriveing at the closest Apple store at 3:00PM there was a line of a few hundred people. I walked right to the front and politly told them I will not be purchasing the new iPhone but would liek to have mine fixed. They then informed me the genious bar was closed for the day due to the release of the new phone and I must wait in line to speak to anyone. What’s a guy to do that has only one choice.
The security guard toward the end of the line informed me the wait would be 3 hours. Perfect for me to make it to the branch manager gathering. Well things did not turn out as planned and 3 hours later I was only half way through the line. It was about 2 hours later when an Apple worker came around with a demo model of the iPhone 3G. It was slick but I was still looking to find out what was going on with my iPhone. Then I was floored with the news that all of Apple’s servers were down for a two hour period and stopped all existing and new iPhones from being activated or re-activated. I promptly turned on my laptop and synced up my iPhone and waaaala it was back.
Now what do I do. I had already been waiting in line 5 hours. I was late and missed the branch manager meeting and nobody could contact me. So I choose to stay and get the new iPhone 3G. Worst case senario I would sell it on ebay in a few days for a profit. I chose the white 16GB model. I am still dabling with it but the navigation seems to work well and the new 2.0 apps are great. Once I can get an idea of battery life and how much faster it allows me to do everyday tasks I will update this post.
At the end of the day Apple had a huge meltdown. I can only image how many existing iPhone users were phoneless for long periods of time. It will be interesting to see how this reflects on the release and on the image of Apple as a technology leader.
