July 2008 Archives

Over the past week I've been putting my iPhone 3G through its paces, well, more like playing. While I've been enjoying the experience there is one thing that's been bothering me: application syncing.

• Buy an app on iTunes and it will sync to your iPhone = Good.
• Buy an app on the iPhone and it doesn't sync back to iTunes = Bad.
• Delete an app off of iTunes and it's removed from the iPhone on the next sync = Good.
• Delete an app off of the iPhone and it will magically reappear on the next sync = Bad.

I've also been encountering issues with updating applications. iTunes notifies me of an application update, which I dutifully download. However, the application is still listed under the previous version number in the Application section. But I thought I just downloaded it! I'm confused. Even worse, I've downloaded the update directly on my iPhone and had the update disappear on the next sync.

The App Store feels like a 1.0 product to me and has a long way to go before it feels truly seamless. Right now we're seeing all of the kinks in the armor, which doesn't feel like a true Apple experience to me.

If you called me an Apple fanboy, I wouldn't be upset. So it pains me to say that the iPhone 3G launch has been craptastic. Excuse me ... capital 'C' Craptastic. A year ago Apple and AT&T were caught off-guard with the insanity that surrounded the original iPhone launch. Activation issues plagued many users for days. Cali Lewis of Geekbrief.tv had one hell of a time getting her iPhones activated. You'd think that Apple and AT&T would have learned from their mistakes.

Iphone 3G activation issues have marred what should have been a successful product launch. The fact that the iTunes activation servers have been shutdown by a self-inflicted DDOS attack is astounding to me. They know exactly how many iPhones and iPod Touches there are in the wild, and how many they could sell over the course of a day. So why couldn't they plan for all of those simultaneous activations?

Something tells me that the IT and Operations teams at Apple have been working feverishly to hit an upper management mandate for this launch. Even though things have backfired, I sympathize and applaud the effort. This smacks of some poor planning at the upper levels of the company.

Let's keep in mind that this isn't just the iPhone 3G bringing Apple to its knees. All of the original iPhones that are trying to download the 2.0 software update need to reactivate themselves. iPod Touch owners, myself included, have also been trying to purchase and download the update. Here's an easy solution: release the 2.0 software several days in advace to allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to get the update out of the way. This would relieve some of the pressure on the servers.

Like I said, the decision to release all at once wasn't a pragmatic decision, but a "let's make a big splash" marketing decision. It's a shame.

I'm still planning on buying an iPhone 3G, as I've mentioned earlier, but my enthusiasm has waned after today's debacle.