Earlier this week, iPhone fanboys rejoiced after securing their place in history with an official fanboy entry in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Perhaps “iBrick” will be the next addition to the dictionary after today’s debacle at the Apple data centers which turned 6 million iPhones into useless, shiny bricks.
Yes, today was supposed to be Steve Jobs’ magnum opus for the iPhone, heralding the release of the iPhone 3G and its revolutionary new mobile operating system, iPhone 2.0. But alas, Gabriel’s trumpet began to play Taps for Apple as reports flooded into Cupertino about new iPhones getting thrown into a loop during the activation process turning them into iBricks.
Not everyone has been so unlucky, though. When the iPhone 3G went on sale starting in New Zealand, and then working westward as Apple Stores opened for business, the stress on Apple’s activation servers was not so severe. Many people bought the new iPhone 3G or upgraded their old iPhones with the new 2.0 operating system. Others, unwilling to wait, downloaded the update directly, bypassing Apple and AT&T. However, most fanboys left it to Apple to amaze them again, just like they were amazed by the first generation iPhone. Today, they are certainly amazed, just not in the way they expected.
Building up to today’s event, Steve had spent months playing the Pied Piper, calling in fanboys from 22 countries to line up early for the latest iPhone only to have this moment turn into Greek tragedy. Some fanboys are cursing Apple, wondering how it is possible for them not to have prepared for this given the amount of hype around it. Others shrug it off and chalk it up to great marketing genius from Steve. After all, a headline like “Incredible demand for new iPhone cripples their activation” can only work wonders for your product launch. There’s no such thing as bad press, especially for fanboys. In the end, Apple’s activation servers will catch up to the demand and every one who wants iPhone 2.0 will have it right in their very own hands. And as fanboys begin to use their iPhone 2.0 devices, buying products in the App Store, iTunes, Mobile.me, and beyond, they will soon forget the one Freaky Friday that their iPhone was an iBrick. Once a fanboy, always a fanboy.
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