Let's take take a trip down memory lane, shall we? Christmas, 1999. Toys 'R' Us becomes a laughing stock because they try to take all their online Christmas orders on a 486 server. A single server. When they had a real Internet company (not just a help desk guy who worked for a Toy company) look at their Internet traffic, it was deemed they needed a minimum of 48 servers just to handle the bare minimum of early Christmas shoppers. Toys 'R' Us got laughed at - but we have to remember - this was 1999. A lot of people didn't even own computers then, and those who did were predominantly on dial-up.
Fast forward to July 11, 2008 - the iPocalypse.
This time, not a toy company (even though we all buy 'toys' from them) - a software company, a computer company, an innovator and changer-of-life company. They MAKE freaking servers for Pete's sake! How is it that their servers cannot handle the load? Were there not precedents? Did they fail to do any load balancing? What are they doing with that $18 Billion in cash reserves? They can't spare a few hundred thousand for some more servers?
I woke up this morning thinking, "yippee! I get to upgrade my 2G phone to 2.0 software today!" I connected to iTunes and it said that I had the most up-to-date software already. I synched and backed up my phone and poked the update button again and it said that 2.0 was ready! I installed it and 6 hours later, I still cannot make a phone call on my only phone... unless I have a stroke in frustration and can call 911. This is more than just a mere inconvenience. I have had my home phone disconnected for some time, because frankly, I never used it anymore. I have a sick friend I cannot call and who cannot call me, because my phone is unusable. Will I die over this? No - but it's really really really really bad P.R.
I'd like to fantasize about dozens of engineers at Apple scrambling in Cupertino to add more of their servers to help handle the load for their always loyal customers and the new customers they hope to wow and impress... but the reality distortion field has been turned off already. For the most part, I have only seen good press for Apple - and I certainly don't want this to be a devastating blow to to a company that makes products I love - but I love the products because they WORK.
Toys R Us had an excuse. It was 1999, they were merely a toy company, and internet commerce was still wearing diapers. It is now 2008 and the most innovative computer company on earth, that makes the very servers they use, cannot supply enough servers to deliver highly anticipated content that ends up crippling existing devices and prevents new devices from being usable.
I'm sorry folks, but it's time for some tough love. Apple needs a hard core spanking over this. Every time I call Apple Care, I'm tired of getting connected to someone in another country where English is his 2nd, 3rd or 4th language and makes me repeat my problem 5 times because he can't understand my very articulated and well-enunciated English. I'm tired of Apple growing so big that it is losing touch with its foundational strength - their loyal consumers - the ones that helped to get the company in a financial situation where they could lure in the masses with the iPod, iPhone and other ensuing gadgetware. I'm now working on hour 7 with an unusable phone that was working just fine before I was prompted by iTunes to download 2.0 software. They knew they were getting bent over a chair - why didn't they turn off the pipe to 2.0 software until they got their new servers online?
It's time for Apple customers to stop defending Apple and publicly complain before Apple gets so big, they tell us to eat cake and turn into Microsoft 2.
Will this all be ok tomorrow? Probably... but all I know today is I cannot use my phone to conduct personal calls or to conduct business. I wonder how many people are in some really awful situations today because their phone has all four paws in the air because of a totally avoidable, easy to foresee problem?
To further my ire (and likely others') is to go to Apple's support web site and find no mention of any problem whatsoever. No acknowledgement - just sunshine and light. And oh yeah - I can't even call AppleCare because my phone is a brick!
