Launch of iPhone 3G goes a bit unsmoothly

(Note: See jump for several updates.)

Today's iPhone 3G launch probably isn't unfolding as Apple hoped it would.

Lines at local Apple stores, though not superlong by last year's original-iPhone standards, have proven to be surprisingly long-lasting this morning. Well, perhaps not so surprising: Now that iPhones must be activated in stores, the amount of time each customer spends buying an Apple handset has grown.

This meant hours queuing up, even with the shorter lines this year. At the Mall of America where I went to pick up an iPhone review loaner, waits of two hours or more were common even though only about 135 people arrived for the 8 a.m. opening. The line outside the Apple store remained long when I left at about 10:30.

My pal Mark Fawcett was in line for more than four hours at Rosedale before finally getting into the Apple store there, only to be told he might have to wait at least another 45 minutes. (See his dispatches on Twitter.)

Technical difficulties seem to be making matters even worse.

At the Mall of America outlet, there were late-morning issues with the handheld-checkout devices wielded by workers. This meant delays with some credit-card transactions.

Worse, a two-step AT&T-activation and iTunes-setup process has bogged down at times.

To speed things up, some customers around the Twin Cities and elsewhere in the country were being sent home with AT&T-activated iPhones that were not personalized with the users' account settings. They were instructed to do this at home. Upon getting on their computers, though, those users found they couldn't get the iTunes server to respond.

I'm in exactly this position with my review unit: It's supposedly activated, but I can't set it up with my iTunes-account info or sync over any of my iTunes content. I keep getting this error message:

Those trying to update the operating software on their older iPhones or iPod Touch devices are in the same boat. In fact, the terms "iPocalypse" and "iBrick" are flying around the Twitterverse to describe iPhones rendered inoperative by failed updates, among other problems. One iPhone-owning co-worker told me he has "basically no phone now."

Here's the error message I get when I try to update the software on an iPod Touch via iTunes:

Not all local users are having problems, to be sure. One local iPhone buyer, Taylor Carrigan, said his in-store activation and home iTunes setup both went smoothly. "I seemed to have gotten done soon enough to miss most of the issues," he told me via Twitter. "Completely up and running now."

My esteemed Houston counterpart Dwight Silverman has chronicled the above and more on his terrific tech blog. Our mutual Minnesota Public Radio friend Jon Gordon has some local stuff up. I posted some video (see top of this post).

Apple, apparently scrambling behind the scenes, just canceled a phone briefing to tell me about its MobileMe services. I don't blame them since those Web apps haven't been working all that smoothly today, either. I can't access my iDisk on a Windows PC via the new Web interface, for instance (good thing WebDAV access still works).

Hmm, Apple, this all could have gone a bit better.

Update: My iPhone, initially unable to do anything but make emergency calls, now has full calling capability and other functions, but still can't sync with iTunes. Local user Dan Menssen reports similar on Twitter: "iTunes still won't see it but apparently it got through enough to make the device functional."

Update: I'm hearing multiple early-afternoon reports of iPhones selling out around the area, especially at AT&T stores.

Update: Dan just sent me a detailed report of his iPhone and MobileMe experiences to date:

Okay, here's a quick summary of my iPhone experience so far: 

The Line. Got to MoA just after 6:00, and there were 30 people (I counted) in front of us. By the time the doors opened I'd guess there were more than 100, but I didn't count that. I was inside the doors by 8:05.  Seems like we timed it right, since it sounds like some people are still in line. 

The Purchasing/Account activation. Went very smoothly. I got my number ported from T-Mobile without any problem. Sales rep was fast and friendly. I was to the "plug it into iTunes" step by 8:20. 

Home setup. Nightmare. Didn't work in the store, so we were all told to go home. In the car by 8:30. Got home just before 9:00, and thought I might beat the mountain timezone rush and get it activated right away. Yeah right. "Error (-9838)." I did a Summize search for "9838" and started watching all the reports of trouble. I gave up until I saw someone post "I tried over and over again and finally it worked." I thought that gave some hope, so I tried over and over again until finally, at about 9:45, it got through enough to at least unbrick the phone. 

The Phone. Everything works great. My ported phone number was active immediately, the App Store works fine. 

MobileMe. I signed up for a MobileMe account late last night (one of the times it was up for 30 min), and it took a while to get the iPhone to successfully log in. I'd say about 10:30 it synced successfully.  My address book synced, and email started working.  Push email, on the other hand, was VERY slow (like, my MacBook Pro would pull the email 10 minutes before it got pushed to the iPhone). It seems to be working now (at least, as of a few minutes ago, it was getting emails before the laptop). 

Synchronization. I'm stuck on the same (-4) error that everyone seems to be (summize "itunes error"). I plug the phone in, it attempts to access the store for five minutes, then it throws the error. So in other words, the phone is working, but I can't download any music, etc. to it. 

Thanks for the great local tech reporting! I've been reading your columns in the PiPress for years.

Update: After a whopping 5 hours and 15 minutes, Mark Fawcett has his iPhone 3G. "We had a blast actually," he says on Twitter shortly after 2 p.m. about his latest Apple-queuing experience. "I always like to make the line fun. I'll say it again, it's like Woodstock for geeks."

Update: My iPhone and iTunes now appear to be making sweet music together, sync now in progress. Looks like I am finally good to go. Attempt to update iPod Touch comes next.

Update: Still zero luck updating the iPod Touch software. It's 4 p.m. on Friday, Apple.

The iPhone is full operational, though. A co-worker helped me punch in our internal Microsoft Exchange settings, and the mail/contacts/calendar syncing works like a charm. I'll keep the work mail on but turn off the contacts and calendar so I can default back to syncing with my Mac Address Book and iCal.