Apple’s brand is on the line. Apple’s customers, as fanatic as we are, are only this way because Apple makes amazing products and has amazing service. If Apple continues to botch product launches like iPhone 3G and MobileMe, I feel they will lose some of their early-adopters who act as evangelists driving so many people to switch to Apple every year.

I don’t see why you would expect hours of waiting in line on launch day to be fun. Launch days are always hectic at best.

Yes, launch days are hectic. It was the manner in which this launch played out that made it different. Again, I don’t mind standing in line, or the occasional problem, but this year the slew of technical glitches and ill-prepared staff made for an arduous day at best. The article was opinion… mine. I know a lot of other people who had similar experiences, one who waited 14 hours only to NOT get a phone.

@Bob

This was the largest CE release in history (based on $$ value, adjusted for inflation), nearly tripling the previous largest release (the original iPhone). How, exactly, do you predict, let alone stress test for that? And, for the record, how do you know it couldn’t handle the same volume as last year?

How do you plan for that? They certainly did have a big release, but to sell that many phones they had to manufacture that many! They certainly knew they were going to sell many more than last year. They could very well have stress tested their systems to at least the number of units manufactured for opening weekend.

@Gregory Pierce

I can’t believe the mall security guards at Lenox! They actually told one child (about 6 years old) he couldn’t sit down after he’d been standing in line from 8 AM to about 4 PM. If I was his parents, the Mall office would have gotten a call from me! I think, at Lenox anyway, a accumulation of many factors ended up setting the tone of the day. I did find it hilarious that the obese security guards had to travel the mall on Segways because they were too lazy to walk, and then told mall customers who were waiting to spend hundreds of dollars in the mall they could not even sit in mall-provided chairs.