Even those who just wanted to update their crusty old iPhones (original flavor) to the new iPhone 2.0 software faced hurdles. That group included me, and I nearly missed a meeting due to this issue. It took forever to get iTunes 7.7 to recognize that the 1.1.4 software on my iPhone was not, dammit, the same as the nifty 2.0 the cool kids were going on about.
And when I jigged and poked it enough to get it to cough up the 2.0 update -- a ginormous 225MB or so -- and stepped through the nail-biting update process (will I lose all my contacts?), I could not connect to the needed authorization servers. I wasn't the only one with this problem.
So, gah! I had a temporarily bricked iPhone. That is, it was updated but was back to the embryonic, emergency-only state it came in originally. All I could do was keep clicking in iTunes, hoping that this time I'd get through. Eventually I did, but this was not the "it just works" experience that Apple is usually so good at offering.
Others had better luck. These are the people who smile and don't get speeding tickets or flat tires and get the best tables at restaurants. They had a long weekend last Saturday and Sunday with their new or updated iPhones playing around with the hundreds of new, cool iPhone apps now available: Enigmo, Pandora radio, even the quickly annoying (to bystanders) PhoneSaber.
For those of us for whom the update or buying process didn't go so smoothly, this was not Apple's finest hour, and it doesn't do much to showcase either the products or the company to those new to the brand. The now-iconic iPod empirically drew in new customers, and the iPhone may be the first Apple product some people have ever owned (this goes even for my mother, who doesn't want to touch a computer).
More cautious buyers, more skeptical about Apple, probably sat out last summers iPhone 1.0 craziness. Now that they're ready to jump, Apple has offered up this fubar to those who need the most convincing, the best possible buyer and user experience.
Long-term Mac users can take this kind of screw-up. They're sold already on the product and have faith that all will be well, even if it takes some time. Just look at the rollout of Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001 and the ensuing improvements with each new version of the operating system. Compare that with the view that no matter how many service packs Microsoft pushes out, Vista will never be the bee's knees.
But, frustrated by long lines on launch day, stymied activations and short supplies, how many wannabe Mac fans will walk away and never come back? Even those who thought they were being smart by waiting a few days now find they may have to wait a month to get the iPhone of their choice.
This isn't to say the iPhone isn't and won't be a big hit, financially and technologically. I've said this could be the future of personal computing, eventually. But this wasn't exactly a forward step for the cause.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to catch up with the rest of the iPhone faithful. There are some free iPhone apps I still haven't tried.
Dan Turner has been writing about science and technology for over a decade at publications, including Salon, eWeek, MacWeek and The New York Times.