Get Updates in your Feed ReaderApple iPhone: Brilliant Device, Horrendous Activation
July 01, 2007
It’s already Sunday and most people who waited in line on Friday like myself have already posted thorough reviews of the new Apple iPhone. I haven’t been too lazy over the last two days to write up a review. In fact, I wish I could have written a review, but it was entirely out of my control. See below under “Activation Mactivation” for more details. I’m going to stress the activation issues because I think a lot of the high profile mac geeks had an ideal and quick activation and didn’t reflect the issues in their widely-read reviews.
I purchased the 8 GB model on Friday at around 6:15 PM after waiting 5 hours in line at the Crabtree Valley Mall here in Raleigh, NC. Many people were able to get the phone later that night without waiting, but it was fun to wait and experience the premiere of the biggest product launch since the iPod.
Out-of-box
How was my out-of-the box experience? Wonderful, once I could actually use the phone. This was helped by Apple’s clever educational commercials that showed me how to use the device before I ever got one in my hands. In addition to the commercials there was the in-depth series of videos on their site on activating and using your new iPhone. This preemptive act by Apple - half marketing, half education - could be a key part of the iPhones success among early adopters.
When I tell people about my iPhone, the only thing I say is “It works just like it does in the commercials.” I got the chance to demonstrate this to a few people while riding on the shuttle bus over the Dwell House Open House this morning and they were blown away by how it works like the demos by Jobs and the commercials they saw on TV. I am, too, but I also expected nothing less for $600.
Activation Mactivation
If you followed by Twitter stream or read my latest entries on this blog, you’ll know that I experienced a long delay getting my iPhone activated. This really tarnished the out-of-box experience because for the first 28 hours of ownership my iPhone did only two things well: taunt me with its activation screen and keep papers from blowing in the wind as the most elegantly designed $600 paperweight I’ve ever owned. I probably tried out the emergency call slider three dozen times. I wonder if anyone actually called 911 because their phone wasn’t activating quickly enough.
I was on and off the phone with representatives from both Apple and AT&T throughout the day on Saturday. Every person had a different reason why my phone wasn’t working, but I didn’t feel like they were feeding me a line to get me off the phone, but instead actually wanted to help. Of all the people I talked to only one person at AT&T was slightly rude. Everyone else was helpful, polite and more than willing to apologize for the long activation delays.
The most important part of this for me personally is that I, too, was polite. I only raised my voice slightly once when a AT&T rep told me the wait time had been extended to 48 hours. But I didn’t yell. I just expressed my displeasure with the sliding activation time.
My activation started at 6:57 EDT on Friday evening. iTunes displayed a message that my activation required additional time and that I would receive an email when it was complete. The email didn’t arrive that night. Nor the next morning, afternoon or evening. I was concerned that something was holding up my activation, like a non-qualifying AT&T wireless plan (we’re existing customers but were out of contract).
Throughout the day Saturday I talked to several representatives on both sides. The story as I was told is that some of the activation servers got overloaded on Friday and were working as quickly as possible to empty the queue. Depending on which activation server you got is how long it took. I know people that were activated in minutes while others took 5 hours and then there was my 28 hours. Once the activation went into the system I was told it was a done deal and could not be stopped, retrieved or resubmitted. I was told to wait it out and that’s all that could be done.
Thanks to my perserverance, I was able to have two issues fixed with my account while activation was pending. If I didn’t have AT&T fix my account, my activation would have most likely been denied. Our existing Family Plan was not current and we needed to choose an updated plan. Also, my iPhone had to be the primary number on the account. A helpful lady at AT&T alerted me to this during on one of my calls and made the adjustments. Also, at some point my account had a hold on it for not having the proper features selected. This was also fixed and the hold taken off. After I changed plans and moved my phone to primary, the activation happened about 2 hours later. Coincidence? Dunno.
The biggest frustration I had was that everytime I called I got a different answer as to why my phone wasn’t activated. Once a rep even blamed Apple and their email server were backlogged. I confirmed that the final activation email is triggered by AT&T, but from a quick look at the headers is coming from Apple servers (Xserves, actually). I do not, however, think Apple was the bottleneck here. Do I know that for sure? No, I don’t. I don’t anything for sure about this whole situation because everyone at AT&T was treating it like a magical voodoo process, which was in the hands of a server and no one could change anything.
My phone was finally activated last night at around 11:30 PM EDT. It was a relief and I jumped right into playing with it.
Miscellany
- GMail is seriously messed up on this phone. Everytime I send a message it adds it as a new message in my Inbox. Anyone know a fix for this? Very annoying.
- No ToDos are synced up from iCal. I’m a big user of iGTD and this is a real bummer.
- I’m getting really good at the keyboard. If you have trust issues in your life, you might hate it.
- I really want to type emails widescreen. Please.
- Talk quality was OK, but not nearly as good as my old RAZR. Using the supplied headphones and the volume cranked, I still had a hard time hearing the person on the other end. This could be a result of too many rock shows at clubs during my 20s.
- I have to delete emails one at a time? Oh, please.
- Please let me flag emails. IMAP supports this, ya know.
- Safari on the iPhone is well-done and a joy to use despite its limitations.
- I found the camera awkward to use and kept putting my finger over the lens. Quality seems OK, but I don’t think it’s as good as dedicated 2 mp digital camera. I like how it automatically syns with iPhoto when I dock it.
If you were one of the first to get a treo 600 your troubles would not seam to be much. Remember this is apple first and the first day. I now have a treo 650 and they still haven’t got it right. Give them a chance I am sure they will do better than treo.
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I’m sure that the activations will get better as demand returns to a normal level.