Apple needs to just say something — anything.

[ziggyonice]

Talk about a mess.

Today was probably the worst disaster since the MobileMe + iPhone 3G launch (remember that day?).

Let's see what we had today...

1) Apple Store going up and down throughout the day.
2) Checking account status that never actually loaded.
3) Oops!
4) No white iPhone at launch.
5) People being overcharged.
6) You name it.

If Apple doesn't say something — anything — I'm really going to be disappointed. You can say, "Oh it wasn't their fault about AT&T's servers... blah blah blah," but they've done this three other times already! Not to mention that the white iPhone was actually said to come out on this day. You add all this together and it's just a mess.

I really hope we just hear something out of Cupertino. I'm sick of Apple's silence.

 

[sonictonic]

It's a slap in the face about the white really. I'm really disappointed a company I put so above other companies, would treat some of their best customers this way.

Apple KNEW they wouldn't have white right away before the store went online, and they should not have strung us along having been lead on this whole time since the 7th when the white was prominently displayed and showed off at WWDC. The fact they STILL haven't said squat is just despicable.

I called 'em and told them how bummed I was and how they really need to say something about this soon, you should too.

Apple Corporate
408-996-1010

 

[wickedawesome31]

I called 'em and told them how bummed I was and how they really need to say something about this soon, you should too.

Apple Corporate
408-996-1010

Thanks for the number. I'll be giving them a call in the morning.

 

[JosephBergdoll]

OMG turns out apple staff aren't perfect WTF?!?!?!

 

[ziggyonice]

OMG turns out apple staff aren't perfect WTF?!?!?!

I'm not blaming Apple's staff. I'm blaming their stupid policy on "absolute silence."

If they were just willing to actually acknowledge the issues experienced today, or say the reason why white iPhones aren't available to order (despite Steve saying they'd be ready by the 24th), I'd be happy.

But no. That's not how Apple does things.

 

[HA5TY]

totally agree. I want to hear from apple asap

 

[ziggyonice]

Not to mention that they should say something when it becomes NATIONAL NEWS.

Nearly half a day into the technical problems that have brought the iPhone ordering process largely to a halt, AT&T declined to offer any hint as to the origin of the problems...

Apple has not returned a request for comment.

“The preorder is a complete disaster."

Apple's new iPhone went on sale Tuesday for pre-orders — and once again, the company experienced big problems.

Wall Street Journal
MSNBC
USA Today
LA Times
New York Times
Computerworld
Reuters
CNN
FOX Business
PC World

The computer glitches are a black eye for AT&T and Apple, which have struggled to overcome complaints...

AT&T and Apple had no comment.

AT&T has dropped the apple. Again.

 

[Andrew K.]

Something must have happened after the initial WWDC Keynote, because they did say the iPhone 4 would be available for Pre-Order today and did not specify wether the White would be available or not. I'm sure we'll hear something by tomorrow.

 

[supremeMilo]

As an Electrical Engineer, their servers going down isn't that big of a deal. The amount of money they would have to spend to get enough servers for one day a year would be crazy.

As a customer, screw you Apple I want white!

As a shareholder whoooHOOOO APPLE PROBABLY SOLD 10MILLION IPHONES TODAY I'M RICH!!!!!!!

 

[Andrew K.]

As an Electrical Engineer, their servers going down isn't that big of a deal. The amount of money they would have to spend to get enough servers for one day a year would be crazy.

As a customer, screw you Apple I want white!

As a shareholder whoooHOOOO APPLE PROBABLY SOLD 10MILLION IPHONES TODAY I'M RICH!!!!!!!

And as a Schizophrenic you're right on point!

 

[Azmontana]

As an Electrical Engineer, their servers going down isn't that big of a deal. The amount of money they would have to spend to get enough servers for one day a year would be crazy.

As a customer, screw you Apple I want white!

As a shareholder whoooHOOOO APPLE PROBABLY SOLD 10MILLION IPHONES TODAY I'M RICH!!!!!!!

You ever reserved tickets through ticketmaster or alternative, they put you in a queue until it's your turn to purchase. Apple should have done something similar.

 

[TwoBytes]

As an Electrical Engineer, their servers going down isn't that big of a deal. The amount of money they would have to spend to get enough servers for one day a year would be crazy.

As a customer, screw you Apple I want white!

As a shareholder whoooHOOOO APPLE PROBABLY SOLD 10MILLION IPHONES TODAY I'M RICH!!!!!!!

+1 to all that, so true.

RE the servers, as a company, you're just gonna think we'll take the hit for one day, besides, we're going to sell out in 30 minutes to chumps with lots of cash so who cares.

Result for Apple? Win.

*i haven't got lots of cash but i'm one of those chumps.

 

[JustinP81]

Look. Was it a mess? Sure.

Do they owe you an explanation?

No.

Why? Because we know what happened. You take 1 part "we under estimated demand", 1 part "you've overloaded our AT&T servers", 1 part "fanboy freak out" and this is what happens.

I doubt, highly, that Apple or AT&T expected this. I doubt they even wanted this. Everyone wants them to learn a lesson, but the lesson is that Apple prepares for a launch of a product only to find out that way more people want it than can be matched.

As far as the White iPhone... just because it's not available TODAY to pre-order doesn't mean it won't BECOME available in the next 8 days. Again, I fail to agree with the thought that Apple "all of a sudden" decided that the White version was a collectible item and decided to make it a brick and mortar Apple Store exclusive.

If you want the white iPhone... wait. It's not like they announced it and then said "HAHA DORKS, WE AIN'T SELLIN' IT ANYMORE!"

It's coming. Have faith. More importantly, have patience. There's a whole list of things that have to happen between the building of the phones and getting them into your hands... who's to say what happened or where it happened that they failed to deliver them to you today, but I'm sure this will go down as a small blip on the radar.

As far as having an explanation from either company, you know, I think it was kind of a busy day? Coming outside of their HQ's to say "Guys, we're overloaded. Mind giving it a rest for a couple minutes and try again later?" would have done what, exactly? Clam the masses? Doubtful.

Everyone...

BREATHE.

 

[ziggyonice]

Great article from David Pogue:

Well, the new iPhone became available for preorders on Tuesday and, wow, what a mess...

I mean, come on, people. This is our fourth annual go-round with new iPhone releases. Surely the surge of interest and popularity is no longer catching Apple or AT&T executives by surprise.

Another from MSNBC...

To the additional disappointment and surprise of some customers, the white iPhone, shown by Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week, is not available for pre-order. The only color available is black.

 

[supremeMilo]

Also, if Apple's servers worked properly they would have probably sold out this morning.

 

[cowsrus]

Look. Was it a mess? Sure.

Do they owe you an explanation?

No.

Why? Because we know what happened. You take 1 part "we under estimated demand", 1 part "you've overloaded our AT&T servers", 1 part "fanboy freak out" and this is what happens.

I doubt, highly, that Apple or AT&T expected this. I doubt they even wanted this. Everyone wants them to learn a lesson, but the lesson is that Apple prepares for a launch of a product only to find out that way more people want it than can be matched.

As far as the White iPhone... just because it's not available TODAY to pre-order doesn't mean it won't BECOME available in the next 8 days. Again, I fail to agree with the thought that Apple "all of a sudden" decided that the White version was a collectible item and decided to make it a brick and mortar Apple Store exclusive.

If you want the white iPhone... wait. It's not like they announced it and then said "HAHA DORKS, WE AIN'T SELLIN' IT ANYMORE!"

It's coming. Have faith. More importantly, have patience. There's a whole list of things that have to happen between the building of the phones and getting them into your hands... who's to say what happened or where it happened that they failed to deliver them to you today, but I'm sure this will go down as a small blip on the radar.

As far as having an explanation from either company, you know, I think it was kind of a busy day? Coming outside of their HQ's to say "Guys, we're overloaded. Mind giving it a rest for a couple minutes and try again later?" would have done what, exactly? Clam the masses? Doubtful.

Everyone...

BREATHE.

they announced that a product that I plan on spending hundreds of dollars on would be available to pre-order today, and then without a warning did not fulfill on that statement. As a customer I believe that I do deserve an explanation as to why they, without any warning whatsoever, made some people worry and possibly screwed some people over.

As for them not expecting this, this is year number 4. if Apple and AT&T were not expecting this yet, they must be extremely incompetent, and I don't really think that's the case. They wanted this to happen as well, so they can wait to pad next quarter sales.

 

[JustinP81]

they announced that a product that I plan on spending hundreds of dollars on would be available to pre-order today, and then without a warning did not fulfill on that statement.

That's not quite correct now, is it?

They did, in fact, have the phone available for pre-order today. It just happened to be in a color you didn't want. The color you wanted "isn't available" YET.

Seriously. 8 days. They have 8 days. A lot can happen.

 

[cowsrus]

That's not quite correct now, is it?

They did, in fact, have the phone available for pre-order today. It just happened to be in a color you didn't want. The color you wanted "isn't available" YET.

Seriously. 8 days. They have 8 days. A lot can happen.

Steve Jobs said the iPhone 4 will be available in black and white on June 24th, with preorders starting June 15th. So yes, they did not follow through on their statement.

 

[JustinP81]

Steve Jobs said the iPhone 4 will be available in black and white on June 24th, with preorders starting June 15th. So yes, they did not follow through on their statement.

And did the world stop turning?

I mean, seriously. 8 DAYS! Who's to say what madness might happen tomorrow?

I think you'll have a leg to stand on if, by the 24th, the white iPhones aren't anywhere to be seen. Maybe then we can start feeding Apple execs and Steve Jobs to the wolves.

Until then?

Let's wait and give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[bradl]

That's not quite correct now, is it?

They did, in fact, have the phone available for pre-order today. It just happened to be in a color you didn't want. The color you wanted "isn't available" YET.

Seriously. 8 days. They have 8 days. A lot can happen.

SJ's keynote says otherwise. Listen to it again, starting at the 1:37:00 mark. He said that they would be available on the 24th, with preorders on the 15th. You can't glean 'black only' out of that.

BL.

 

[klitorisaurus]

If it was gonna be available in 8 days, they would have allowed pre-orders.
If it was gonna be available July 2, they would have allowed pre-orders.
If it were just a matter of temporary backorder, just like the black is currently experiencing, they would have allowed pre-orders.

This could take awhile.

 

[ziggyonice]

They did, in fact, have the phone available for pre-order today. It just happened to be in a color you didn't want. The color you wanted "isn't available" YET.

Seriously. 8 days. They have 8 days. A lot can happen.

Note, however... that there isn't going to be a pre-order just for the white version. Which means there also won't be any available prior to the 2nd, seeing as they're now all sold out.

If they just would have said, in advance, "white iPhones will be available later" I would have let this whole thing go. But they didn't. They waited 'til the last second and posted it like an afterthought on their website.

 

[cowsrus]

And did the world stop turning?

I mean, seriously. 8 DAYS! Who's to say what madness might happen tomorrow?

I think you'll have a leg to stand on if, by the 24th, the white iPhones aren't anywhere to be seen. Maybe then we can start feeding Apple execs and Steve Jobs to the wolves.

Until then?

Let's wait and give them the benefit of the doubt.

I really think you should read things before you start posting.
You said Apple doesn't owe us an explanation and I disagreed saying that they essentially promised us a certain product to preorder today and they did not fulfill that promise. I am not saying that is a huge deal, but Apple better give a damn good explanation as to why they didn't come through on this. You then said I wasn't correct saying they promised the white iPhone and now you are off on a tangent trying to change the conversation because you said something blatantly wrong.

 

[Goaliegeek]

Maybe something went wrong during production with the whites? Maybe around WWDC, Apple discovered a flaw with the white ones; cracks, over-heating, maybe something to do with the paint?

 

[ovrlrd]

As someone who was lucky enough to get their order in within the first 10 minutes of the iPhone 4 pre-order sale, I can honestly say they have a lot to learn from this.

That being said, I am sure we will hear something about it (especially regarding the White), but don't expect it to be that great of an explanation.

The majority of the problem is simply several million people all hitting refresh over and over again trying to get it to work causing a denial of service attack on Apple and AT&T's internal servers.

The solution isn't all that simple, and they probably could do a number of things. Do you want to know the easiest way to solve it? Only sell iPhones that don't require a contract, so they require the least amount of "work" that the servers need to do in order to complete a sale.