Tech problems with overloaded servers snarl iPhone 3G debut

Apple's new iPhone went on sale Friday to eager buyers worldwide, including at least 150 people who began lining up overnight to wait in a winding line outside Apple's store at the Santa Rosa Plaza.

But the launch had its blips.

Apple suffered massive network gridlock Friday morning, as many of the 6 million users of the original iPhone tried to upgrade to new software while the first buyers of the new iPhone 3G were trying to activate their purchases.

The problems led to slow-moving lines of would-be iPhone purchasers at Apple and AT&T stores, while current iPhone users found that their phones stopped working when they tried to upgrade them with the latest software. The iPhone must connect to Apple servers through the iTunes program for authentication before it will function again after a software upgrade.

None of those concerns was on the minds of the first buyers in line, Scott Strieter, 18, of Occidental and friend Trystan Shelley, 20, of Sebastopol, when they arrived at the Santa Rosa mall at 12:30 a.m.

They were turned away by a Plaza security guard, but around 1 a.m. found an open door and spent the rest of the night wandering around in a hapless search for Wi-Fi and getting little sleep inside the mall.

Strieter said they couldn't wait to buy the new iPhone 3G. "It's awesome," he said. "It has GPS and so many other applications" such as faster Internet access and a navigation chip.

And it's nearly half the price of the previous model. Neither Strieter nor Shelley had an iPhone before and each bought the new 8-gigabyte, $199 model. A 16-gigabyte model also was available Friday for $299.

Greeting the line of customers that snaked around one side of the mall were a few security guards and 19 Apple employees who handed out free bottles of water. A table with Starbucks coffee also was set up.

With the encouragement of the Apple workers, the customers did a countdown of the last seconds before the store opened. As the security gate was lifted at 8 a.m., the employees clapped and cheered.

A dozen customers marched in and waited quietly for the plastic-wrapped black box containing their new iPhone.

"I'm excited and very exhausted," Shelley said.

The 120th person in line, Judy Smith, 61, of Windsor, arrived just a few minutes after the store opened.

As she waited for her turn, she was talking on her old iPhone, which cost $400. She had an earlier $600 model but lost it.

Asked why she was joining the line for the phone, Smith joked, "because I'm a nut."

Store manager Bruce Beach, citing Apple policy, declined to say how many iPhones the store had in stock.

While customers were plenty, morning sales were snagged by balky credit card machines, which Beach theorized was caused by a crush of customers nationwide slowing the credit check system.

The new phone went on sale in 21 countries Friday, unleashing a flood of activity that overwhelmed Apple's iTunes servers and prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store. The technology blog Gizmodo dubbed it the "iPocalypse."

Apple did not comment publicly on the problems, but executives privately acknowledged them and said the combination of the software upgrades and new iPhone 3G owners trying to complete their activation had swamped the company's servers.

As the line continued to grow through the morning, people young and old, some pushing baby strollers, chatted, sipped coffee or water and read the newspaper.

And, talked on cell phones -- iPhones or not.

You can reach Staff Writer Shadi Rahimi at 521-5280 or shadi.rahimi@ pressdemocrat.com. The New York Times contributed to this story.