The Sapience Society

June 7th – iPhone 4 is announced

June 15th – Pre-orders start, I try unsuccessfully to pre-order my new iPhone that morning, and then try again that night. Success! A page showing that I did in fact reserve my new phone, and some instructions on what information to bring, when, etc…

June 24th – 5:00 AM – Wake up after only several hours of sleep.

June 24th – 6:15 AM – Arrive at the Apple store at Pioneer Place, get into line.

June 24th – 6:20 AM – I’m very sick to my stomach, probably due to an overdose of allergy medication.

June 24th – 10:00 AM – My friend and I are told that our pre-orders didn’t go through, and that we should go home. Apparently our reservations were only valid if we received an email about them. When asked, an employee at the Apple store tells me that my best bet is to order the phone online, and that it will probably arrive in the later half of July.

There are so many things wrong with this.

1. How was I supposed to know that I should have gotten an email? This seemingly crucial piece of information was never at any point given to me.
2. Why did I see that my pre-order went through successfully when it didn’t? This one is probably AT&T’s fault and this time it’s inexcusable.  This is the FOURTH iPhone launch. Every time it gets bigger, and every time both AT&T and Apple are woefully under-prepared.
3. Why didn’t the Apple store employees check the pre-orders as people showed up? It really goes to show you the way that Apple operates that they would wait for four hours before getting around to tell you that you’re screwed.

The hidden subtext is:

Apple knows that they don’t even have to try to get people to buy their products. They have already sufficiently hyped the new iPhone, and at this point any delays will just cause customers to want the phone even more. What they’re not thinking about is: while this is true, most people (including myself) who had similar experiences will still buy the new phone if they were originally intending to.. all it’s doing is pissing people off! Apple doesn’t care! A year to prepare for this launch and they can’t even keep up with the (predictably obviously insane) demand. I feel like this is just bullshit marketing. I don’t like being pushed around!

I would like to set the facts straight on this issue once and for all, even if the only way I can do that is by publishing my own blog post (which no one will read). You can read my response later on in the post.

Yeah, you. In a recent U.S. copyright filing, Apple apparently claims that the jailbreaking of iPhone operating systems leads to problems in the AT&T network, probably helping to explain the general unreliability network users have experienced. If “general unreliability” sounds a little harmless, keep in mind that Apple is also making the case that jailbreaking could make it possible for users to crash cell phone towers.

Of course, you can see why AT&T wouldn’t like this. But there may be more to the story. Apple’s comments apparently also noted that the altering of the baseband processor BBP of the Apple is what would allow people to crash the towers. Maybe not so coincidentally, “unlocking” the iPhone in this manner would also allow consumers to use networks other than AT&T.

Maybe “unlocking,” and not jailbreaking, is simply bad for business.

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