iPhone Friday: Epic clusterf**k + happy ending

This from the NY Times:

Software Problems Bug Apple's Launch of New iPhone - NYTimes.com

This from "Sluggo":

AT&T sucks... so does Apple for forcing them on us, very un-Apple-like behavior if you ask me.

Yeah, they do suck. I'm nonplussed at how badly today has gone. I mean, I'm comfortable and happy sitting at a restaurant with wifi, but that's blissful ignorance, 'cos I can't receive any phone calls and don't know who might be trying to get ahold of me. The grilled salmon at Luca is helping, too.

I don't guess Apple had much choice but AT&T. Anyone who pays attention to the mobile communications market, and I mean worldwide, knows that a manufacturer has to choose a partner provider, or they can't get a deal anywhere. It's like the guy with the greased hair at the high school dance trying to put his hand on every sophomore girl's ass, and pretty quick he's got no one to dance with.

It's also important to remember that, according to reports, Apple did offer the iPhone deal to Verizon, who said that Apple drove too hard a bargain. I know, you're shocked. So, I'm gonna posit that Verizon is the second best provider in the States to AT&T. Better coverage, slightly more fascistic, about the same level of customer service. Sprint sucks rhino, and T-Mobile rates high in customer support, and terrible in connectivity.

So maybe if you can't get Verizon, you go with AT&T. It's possible, too, that the Verizon deal was itself a myth: AT&T is the only GSM provider worth its weight, and GSM is quickly becoming the world standard. Apple doesn't want to make two iPhone models, one for GSM and one for CDMA, a whole different chipset.

Whether you're a consumer or a manufacturer, whichever provider you marry, bring a jar of Vaseline to the nuptial consummation.

Perhaps Apple couldn't have avoided this fiasco. What carrier on earth is used to thousands of devotées showing up, some a week early, to buy a bloody mobile phone on day of launch? We hoped Apple would have been able put up the infrastructure to handle the traffic. It was iTunes that was reporting the failure, but who knows whose servers were at fault?

Ah well. 6 hours after I got started, I have an new, activated iPhone 3G. 

I was without a connection for maybe 2 hours. 

My voicemail has been deleted, but I did take screenshots just in case. 

My original iPhone remains a wireless iPod, which is awesome. 

I've got GPS, good fast internet, and a bunch of cool apps. 

There are also more cool apps that cost more than I feel like paying. 

I don't have copy & paste. 

I don't need MMS. 

I haven't tried the 3rd-party video recorder. 

I'm still with godawful AT&T, but I have an unlimited-minutes plan at a reasonable price (not more than I was paying before).

Today was a good day.