Tech Glitches, Delivery Delays: Apple's Latest Product Rollout Has Been a Mess So Far After a livestream unveiling its next generation of devices malfunctioned on Tuesday, the Apple store similarly crashed early this morning when the latest iPhones became available for preorder.
By Geoff Weiss
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
While consumer and media response to Apple's forthcoming range of watches and smartphones has been decidedly mixed, one thing is fairly unanimous: the company's rollout process seems to have been botched at every turn.
Last night, when pre-order for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus became available at 3 a.m. ET, online shoppers in the U.S. were vexed to arrive at a malfunctioning Apple store, which was down for a total of 2-1/2 hours.
While some consumers were able to successfully order their phones via the Apple Store app for iOS, others tried their luck on carrier websites like AT&T and Verizon, reports CNET. Sprint and T-Mobile, meanwhile, were as glitchy as the Apple site itself.
Related: Apple's Big Announcements and What They Mean to You: The Weekly Roundup
Even users who managed to place an order were met with unexpected delays: the iPhone 6 will deliver within seven to 10 business days, some shoppers reported, while the 6 Plus won't arrive for another three to four weeks.
Though the iPhone 5 also sold out upon its launch in 2012 at a record pace -- causing Apple to prolong shipment times from one week to three -- this reportedly marks the first time that Apple's online store has completely crashed.
Frustrated users took to Twitter to vent about the situation:
Odd. If you hit refresh enough times when the Apple Store website is down you get this easter egg. pic.twitter.com/f9r5TggnoF
— Jonathan Paull (@zamn) September 12, 2014Related: Leadership Lessons From Apple CEO Tim Cook
The hilarious responses took a similar tone to the social avalanche on Tuesday when Apple's livestream -- during which the new products were to be officially unveiled -- similarly crashed. As Apple doesn't typically livestream its keynotes, those who tuned in were staggered to discover strange error screens, a Mandarin translation dubbed over the audio stream and a maddening string of stops and starts.
Which all begs the question: could Apple have done better? While the onslaught of orders would seem to indicate that the company succeeded from a product perspective, the glitches may be a blight upon Angela Ahrendts, according to CNET -- the former Burberry CEO who joined Apple in May to revamp its underperforming retail and online stores division.
And as for the live stream failures?
If you're having a bad day, remember that there's some guy that needs to tell Tim Cook that half the live stream had Chinese dubbing.
— Josh Helfferich (@JoshHelfferich) September 9, 2014Related: The 'i' Goes Silent: Why Apple Didn't Name Its Smartwatch 'iWatch'
