| iPhone Users Plagued by Software Problems
SAN FRANCISCO — On Friday, the iPhone was the iCan’t for many users.
Apple suffered massive network gridlock Friday morning as many of the six million users of the original iPhone tried to upgrade to new software at the same time as the first buyers of the new iPhone 3G were trying to activate their purchases.
The problem was magnified by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s campaign to persuade Macintosh users to switch from its .Mac Web service to a new MobileMe service that is intended to seamlessly share information between Macintosh computers and the iPhone.
The meltdown is a classic example of problems that can result from complex systems that have single points of failure. In this case, the company appeared to invite disaster by not separating its existing customers from new ones.
“There are certainly lessons in preparedness,” said Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry consultant who is president of Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y. “The acid test for many years has been Christmas morning where customers contact companies in droves after opening presents,” Mr. Doherty said, adding that he had still not been successful in activating his own phone after upgrading.
In addition to long waiting times for iPhone 3G purchasers at Apple and AT&T stores, current iPhone users found that their phones were made inoperable when they tried to upgrade their phones to the latest iPhone software. The iPhone now requires an authentication step in which the phone must connect to Apple servers through its iTunes software application before it will function again after a software upgrade.
On Friday morning, Apple executives acknowledged the problem and said the combination of original iPhone users upgrading and new iPhone 3G users trying to complete their activation swamped the company’s servers.
At Apple and AT&T stores on Friday morning, employees began instructing purchasers to take their new iPhones home and activate them there. A year ago, when the original iPhone went on sale, customers performed that activation process at home. However, Apple and its cellphone partners changed the process this time, in part because the cost of the phones is now partially subsidized and having the phones on a contract is now crucial for the carriers.
Early indications are that the company was coping with significant demand for the new phones even as lines stretched around the block at many of Apple’s stores, which opened at 8 a.m.However, in many cases, the customers were not new ones, but existing iPhone users looking to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G model, which is being sold for as little as $199 with a two-year contract.
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