So, it has come true. The dream of entire legions of techno-geeks and Apple lovers, the nightmare for some players in the smartphone market, especially when talking about the US, the long-awaited iPhone 3G is here! ...or is it not? Before, we heard some rumors about possible iPhone 3G shortages soon during its early days on the market, and now it seems those rumors are turning into reality, unfortunately. Oh, well, I guess nobody will die because they upgraded the iPhone 3G a few days, maybe even weeks, later, don't you think? After all, it's just a phone!...smartphone, whatever.
Leaving aside the shortages, think about the nightmare of having to wait for those in front of you to choose their rate plans and phone options! Of course, this could be easily done in 2 minutes, as long as you know exactly what you want when entering the store, but what if you're nicely standing in line, and 3 out of those 10 guys in front of you spend over 30 minutes each to see what's better for them? Of course, this doesn't have anything to do with Apple, but with the decision of in-store activation...
As some probably expected, there were some problems with the order processing system for a short period, but nothing that bad. After all, could you imagine that O2 reported 13,000 iPhone 3G orders PER SECOND?!? The funny part comes right in - there are a lot of orders, but not that many iPhones!
Regarding the iPhone 3G not being available, O2 said "We have been working continuously with them(Apple) to get as much stock for the UK as possible. Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries. We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come."
At last, let's get back to those 13,000 orders per second - the website being hammered that bad was the O2 site offering early upgrade options: "We had invested heavily to add a huge amount of additional capacity, 250 times its normal rate, and back-up systems. We tested this carefully in advance. The massive simultaneous crush exceeded even our worst case assumptions. Demand was at 13,000 orders per second. Frankly, we have to admit we just weren't prepared for this unprecedented level of demand. No website is."
Could it be that the iPhone 3G is more than even Apple expected it to be? Well, that remains to be seen, but if you got one already and want to share your experience with the rest of us, most not being that lucky, just drop your comment below, you lucky bastard!(no offense intended, of course) ;)
