Some iPhone customers put on hold
622096
As iPhone supply finally starts to dwindle, reports emerge of problems with the device's activation process.
654685
By Brier Dudley, Seattle Times  Jun. 25--I don't know if they realize it, but those people lining up to buy Apple iPhones on Friday are guinea pigs.   They may be after a nice phone or the newest version of the iPod.
419338
Soon there will be two iPhones on the market. Each will do different things, but at least the companies behind them won't be squabbling over who can use the name and how.
118940
Blog: Group claims it can unbind the iPhone from a specific carrier to "expand the functionality" of the device.
741378
The rush to buy the iPhone strained the company's servers, leaving a lot of customers unable to activate their phones.
574507
Talks between China Mobile and Apple are on ice.
702947
(InfoWorld) - After standing in line for hours on Friday to buy the new Apple iPhone, some users were forced to wait even longer to activate the phones, while others found the store shelves empty and will have to wait another week for their phones to arrive in the mail. On Monday, staff at an AT&T store in Boston said they had run out of iPhones on Friday night while a line of customers still snaked out the door. People at the back of the line purchased their phones through "direct fulfillment" and will receive their phones through the mail in three to seven days, the store said. AT&T declined to release sales figures but said that virtually all of its stores have sold out of iPhones. Over the weekend, AT&T referred disappointed customers to the Apple Web site but now says it plans to begin selling iPhones through its online store as well, said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe. He did not give a date. AT&T downplayed the reported activation delays. "The vast majority of iPhone customers have completed the activation process in just a few minutes as planned," Coe said. "Only a very small number of customers who purchased an iPhone this weekend are experiencing issues with activation, and all our energies are focused on clearing up these difficulties just as quickly as possible." Apple did not return calls for comment. Some analysts blamed the delays on heavy user traffic. "AT&T's servers were slow due to the mass number of sign-ups in the first few hours with credit checks. This may have delayed some purchasing of iPhones," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research, in his Monday report to investors. Other customers experienced delays when they tried to switch to AT&T from other carriers, he said. Still, Wu upgraded his stock estimate for the company and predicted that the iPhone would become the fastest-selling product in Apple's history. Within three years, Apple could become one of the top smartphone vendors, changing the competitive landscape of that industry. Even customers who took their iPhones home on Friday faced potential delays in activating them. Users who registered their phones on the iTunes Web site saw a warning that the process could take between 24 and 48 hours, said Craig Henry, a 32-year-old IT administrator at a law firm in Massachusetts. Henry's wait lasted for three hours when he received an e-mail confirmation that his phone was activated. However, he soon faced another challenge when he tried to transfer his address book to the iPhone. "The hardest part for me was transferring my phone numbers because I was on Verizon and didn't have the software to keep the numbers on my PC. So I spent an hour typing in about 150 numbers," he said. He also had to get accustomed to the touchscreen interface, which relies completely on finger drags, flicks, and pinches instead of using hard keys. "It takes a little bit of getting used to. But the typing works fine; I was sending text messages all day on Saturday," Henry said. "When you're in the contacts sheet, you run your finger across the screen -- kind of like flicking a marble -- and it scrolls really fast, or you can drag it and scroll slowly." Many users were concerned about iPhone battery life, an issue that Apple tried to address on June 18 by upgrading the original battery before the product even launched. Still, Henry visited an Apple store on Saturday to buy a second charger so that he could power his iPhone both in his home and his office. Despite the hurdles of learning to use his new gadget, Henry said he suffered no buyer's remorse. "I was out on Saturday night, and everybody knew I had it and wanted to touch it," Henry said. "They made a little fun of me for waiting in line so long, but I don't think the wait was too bad. When people see it, they're amazed by it."
369369
Many think of Apple as a skilled marketer, and if there were any questions about that ability, the iPhone launch certainly answered them as consumers waited in line for hours, if not days, to get their hands on the new wireless device.
172069
No true fans of the coveted  iPhone could be found standing in line outside Apple's flagship  store here a full day before the gadgets go on sale. There were  just exploiters, exploited and a few clowns.
342658
iFraud Fraudsters have been busy at work exploiting the hype surrounding last week's launch of the Apple iPhone.â¦
188037
InfoWorld - A company that unlocks cell phones in Europe said it is close to having an application that will allow customers to unlock their Apple iPhones so they can use SIM cards from carriers other than AT&amp;T to activate the phones.
388877
Customers will have to wait to use its gift cards.
220227
Blog: Apple details rules for iPhone purchasers.
69854
Blog: Some frustrated iPhone early adopters took advantage of the weekend deadline to get a full refund, but most seem satisfied.
55256
With under six hours to go, some people in line for the iPhone in New York are seeing if they could make a few bucks off the product hype by selling their places in line. As far as I can tell, there have not yet been any takers. From Crave, CNET's gadgets blog.
216036
The hooplah. The stories. The comment Apple's iPhone goes on sale in the US this evening. The queues have formed, and limits placed on how many of the handsets punters can take away with them. What is all the fuss about? Find out by reading Register Hardware's most popular iPhone stories...â¦
595209
Blog: While hundreds of people wait outside Apple stores in New York City to get their hands on the iPhone, AT&T stores around the city have only a handful of people waiting in line.