iPhone Activation Meltdown: Not Again, Please

By  |  Friday, June 19, 2009 at 1:30 pm

On a scale of 1 to 10, my experience buying a new iPhone 3G S this morning was a 9.5 (well, except for the part about showing up at 3:15am). I was in and out of the Apple Store in less than ten minutes with a working phone. It was a vast improvement on my buying encounter last year, when the store’s Windows CE-powered wireless terminals kept crashing and I spent close to an hour in the store–and left with an iPhone 3G that still didn’t work until I activated it at home.

But AppleInsider is reporting that some people are discovering that their phones aren’t activating, and that iTunes is telling them that it could take 48 hours before they’re all set. (I don’t think the “Waiting for Activation: This May Take Some Time” message mentioned by AI is a sign of trouble–I got that message too, and in my case, the “some time” was around twenty seconds.) Let’s hope that the 48-hour figure is an absurd worst-case scenario, not a likely experience.

I don’t know how widespread the issues reported by AppleInsider are, but a Twitter search for “iPhone activation” returns more tweets by people worrying about activation glitches than by those actually experiencing them. I choose to take that as a sign that things are going smoothly for most folks.

 
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6 Comments For This Post

  1. Noah Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    I bought a new 3GS this morning in Oregon; activation took about 2 hours.

  2. g Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    I went to my local AT&T at 9:20a (open at 9:00a) and was surprise to find ZERO in line, except for the two AT&T employees at the door. However, once inside, all the stations were occupied with customers.

    I was upgrading from the original iPhone to an 16 GB 3GS and it was activated in-store. The rep pulled out the SIM from my old phone and inserted it into the new phone. The whole process took about 10-15 minutes. Relatively painless.

  3. kev-dawt-dawg Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    I had a bit of an issue, but after I restarted the phone it was fine.

  4. FormFire Glassworks Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    Got home at 3pm to find mine – still waiting for activation at 4:30. I was so excited – upgrading from an original iPhone. At least I can use all the other goodies, but until then, I’m carrying 2 phones. 🙁

  5. GR Says:
    June 19th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    I believe this is something else to pile on AT&T about. As I understand it all activations need to be passed through to their servers by Apple.

    They had similar issues last year. Seems they don’t prepare very well for iPhone launches (MMS/Tethering anyone?). Why should they care? People without understanding of the technicalities will likely blame Apple for these glitches.

  6. ToddV Says:
    June 21st, 2009 at 7:30 am

    Got mine in FedEx at 3pm Friday. At 10am Sunday it is still waiting for activation. So, nearing 48 hours.

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