C oloap's Conundrum: 3G iPhone

It's July 11th, so that can only mean one thing....the 3G iPhone is finally here!

5:00AM CT: I wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the highly anticipated day. After taking a shower and brushing my teeth, I leave the condo around 5:45 am.

6:10AM CT: It takes me a about 25 minutes of walking to get to the downtown AT&T store. There are probably 20 people already in line when I arrive. An AT&T employee gives me a wristband and tells me that having a wristband does not guarantee that you will be receiving an iPhone that day.

The store does not open until 8 am so I have at least 2 hours before the store can start letting people in. AT&T said that they'll let in 6 people at a time. I am guessing that it's going to take at least 15-20 minutes for each individual to activate their new 3G iPhone. I do the math and realize that I am probably going to be in line for more than 3 hours. It's a good thing that I was prepared and brought a book to read.

8:00AM CT: At around opening time, there are now probably 75 more people standing behind me in line.

8:25AM CT: I hear the first bad news of the day. One of the earlier customers says that AT&T are having problems activating the iPhones because the servers are down. They are advising everyone to activate it at home via iTunes. This is opposite from AT&T's earlier stance of activating it through the store only.

8:50AM CT: There is only one other person in front of me and it's almost my turn to purchase the iPhone. I hear the second bad news of the day. The 16 GB black iPhone are completely sold out. They are telling customers that they can pre-order them and receive them sometime next week. I didn't want to wait another week so I went with the 16 GB white iPhone.

9:15AM CT: I already upgraded my phone and Chrissy's phone about a month ago because I didn't think that the new 3G iPhone was going to be subsidized. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy when Steve Jobs announced the subsidized price of the new 3G iPhones. The price for the 8GB and 16GB subsidized iPhone is $199 and $299 respectively. Since I already upgraded both of our lines a month ago, the price for the unsubsidized 8GB and 16GB iPhone is $399 and $499 respectively.

Regardless, I really wanted the 16GB model so I was willing to pay the money for it. I also bought the AppleCare Protection Plan so that my iPhone would be covered for 2 years. With all this in mind, imagine my surprise when the AT&T employee said that my total came out to $390 and some change. I thought I was hearing things until I swiped my credit card and saw the price firsthand. I even double checked the iPhone to make sure it was the 16GB iPhone. I couldn't believe it that AT&T gave me the iPhone for the subsidized price! I was so excited that I could barely contain myself!

10:00AM CT: I am excited about activating my iPhone. I attempt to activate it, but the first problem I run into is that I need to update my iTunes to 7.7. After downloading the update, I start to receive error messages such as, "iTunes could not connect to iPhone" and "network timed out." After doing some research online, I found out that I am not the only having problems activating the iPhone. Apparently, the servers keep crashing and Apple is working diligently to address the problem.

10:30AM CT: I try a few more times but end up just getting the same message. It's frustrating because I have this beautiful phone that I can do nothing with except make an emergency call to 911. The problem is made worse by the fact that my old phone Sony Ericsson w580i is also inoperable. So basically, I have two phones that I cannot use. Rather than tear my hair out, i decided to go to the Apple Store at the Rosedale Mall to look for some new accessories.

11:30AM CT: The line at the Apple Store is probably 3 times as long as the line from the downtown AT&T. It stretches from the front of the Apple Store all the way to the front of Macy's. There are probably 250-300 people in line. I am very thankful that I made the decision of purchasing my 3G Iphone downtown. Since I am only purchasing the accessories, I don't have to wait in line and manage to get out of the store in 15 minutes. I purchased a new case, a dock, and a car charger.

12:00PM CT: I try a few more times to activate my iPhone but I still get the same error problems. I decide to get lunch with my wife and her brother Zak.

1:15PM CT: After lunch, I decide to try a few more times to no avail. I decide to start working on this blog to kill some time.