Gadgetry: My iPhone 3G

This past Friday was the first day the Apple iPhone 3G went on sale. I thought I would go to the AT&T store a block away from my office around 7:45am to see the length of the line. The line was wrapped around the building with nearly 200 people. I wasn't going to wait so i headed to work.

While at work, I was reading some tech blogs saw some reports that people were waiting for hours because the iTunes server crashed and phones couldn't be activated. Some people were sent home with unactivated phones, and first generation phones were being disabled after upgrading to the 2.0 software. Needless to say, the first day was a mess.

After I finished with tennis I thought I would head to the Apple store on Knox Street in Highland Park, because I figured the line would have died down a bit. I got there around 9:30pm there were about 70 people in line. I was in line for about 10 minutes before a n employee at Apple store store announced to crowd that only the next 50 people were going to be served. He apologized to those waiting in line and those disappointed after waiting line for over two hours could come back tomorrow. I hadn't been there for too long so I didn't mind. I went to grab some food before heading home.

The next day I went to same Apple store around 6:45am and I was the 10th person in line. I brought my iBook and some other provisions to keep myself occupied while I waited for the doors to open at 8am. The people in line were really nice and we all talked about the all the issues that took place with the new iPhones the day before.

The doors opened and I was in the second wave of service. When I finally got in to get my phone I had to make a decision on which phone to get. I initially wanted the black 16gb version, but I changed my mind and got the white version of the same size. The white version didn't show smudges when touched and it looked more chic. I got my phone and was at the register ... and that's when I ran into problems.

I was one of many people at the store having issues with their existing AT&T account. I switched to AT&T 8 days prior and I an employee discount on my account and this cause problems. After talking to AT&T for nearly and hour they could not get my phone activated because of my employee discount. In order to get the iPhone at the $299 price, I would had to leave the store and head to an AT&T store and return my old phone and remove the discount. I was not leaving Apple store without an iPhone, so I asked the AT&T representative would I be able to get the phone if I added a new line to my account and canceled the old line at a later date. She said, "technically, that should work." I tried it out, and it worked and I got the phone for $299. I paid for the iPhone, and it was on to the next step ... activating it on iTunes. The process too about 2 minutes and I was out of there. I headed to AT&T store near my house to return my old phone but I was to forced to use the new number that was given to my iPhone instead of retained the number I received 8 days ago.

So, I got my iPhone and I am enjoying it. I already made a couple of ringtones for it just so I wouldn't have to use the default tones. I asked the Apple specialist if she is getting a free iPhone 3G for being an employee. I was told that she wasn't. I think all Apple employees and the AT&T reps deserve to get one for dealing with the needlessly complicated process.

Due to all of the restrictions, the Apple store I went to only sold about 400 iPhones on launch day. Last year, they probably sold that many iPhones in an hour. AT&T should allowed perspective iPhone owners to pre-register online, print out a receipt with a confirmation code or barcode, and bring it to store. You had to bring a Photo ID and give your Social Security Number, so the process would have seemed secured.

The process is flawed, but it worked out in the end. I will post my review of the phone next week.