Apple

While it would certainly be wrong to call the issue widespread, some iPhone users have reported delays while trying to activate their new iPhone 3G S.

CNET's own David Martin tried to activate his iPhone today and had to call AT&T customer support. AT&T customer service reps couldn't explain what the problem was, but it surely has to do with the number of people trying to activate their phones all at once.

For some users, iTunes is reporting that it could take up to 48 hours to complete the activation process. From experience, I know that this is a standard message. The "up to" part is the key. It could be done in an hour, there is just no way to tell.

The problem is not new, nor unexpected. During an iPhone launch day, tens of thousands of people around the country all try to activate their iPhones, which generates an incredible volume of attempts on the AT&T servers.

AppleInsider and other blogs around the Web are reporting similar scattered issues.

However frustrating for the users it's happening to, this year's activation issues are nothing like the server meltdown AT&T suffered from the previous two iPhone launches.

Activate your iPhone 3G at home.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)

When the iPhone 3G went on sale exactly five months ago, AT&T and Apple ended the in-home activation process that customers enjoyed with the original version. Though AT&T and Apple may have thwarted some iPhone unlockers, rule-abiding customers weren't happy about being forced to visit an Apple or AT&T store to buy the phone.

On Thursday, however, AT&T had a change of heart. You now can buy the iPhone 3G on AT&T's site (Apple will still make you come into the store) and have it delivered right to your home for activation through iTunes. The price is unchanged ($199 or $299) but as I said when AT&T business customers could buy the iPhone online, the convenience of activating at home is priceless.

Gadgetell first reported the news this morning, but I have confirmed it with AT&T's media relations office. Now hurry, you have only eight more ordering days to get a delivery by Christmas.

Apple has released version 2.1 of its iPhone software, promising a wealth of bug fixes for a pioneering device that suffered a number of problems.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone update in a speech Tuesday during a launch event for next-generation iPod music players, saying, "This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs."

The company's software update page shows just how big:

• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
  
• Significantly better battery life for most users
  
• Dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes
  
• Improved e-mail reliability, notably fetching e-mail from POP and Exchange accounts
  
• Faster installation of third-party applications
  
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third-party applications
  
• Improved performance in text messaging
  
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
  
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
  
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
  
• Option to wipe data after 10 failed passcode attempts
  
• Genius playlist creation

The page also instructs iPhone users to use the latest version of iTunes to perform the update. So beware, Windows Vista users.

The iPhone 3G has generally won acclaim for its design and the range of third-party applications that now can run on the device, though some miss features such as copy-and-paste and voice-command dialing. However, network connectivity troubles and other issues have tarnished the iPhone 3G's debut.

Apple is finally getting ready for the iPhone to mean business.

In its first eight months, the iPhone has been mostly a consumer phenomenon in the U.S. Apple has pitched the device by showing off its iPod capabilities, or how to search the Web for restaurant reservations and car prices, or update your status on Facebook. But next week Apple plans to show off some "exciting new enterprise" features for the iPhone, which will presumably make it easier for those of us who can't push the CIO around to use our iPhones as tools for work.

The groundwork for this movement has been taking place for some time. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced plans to bring out a software development kit for the iPhone in October, that paved the way for companies developing enterprise software applications--decidedly not Apple's strength--to move those applications to the OS X operating system that runs the iPhone. Also, earlier this year AT&T began allowing iPhone users to sign up for business accounts, after requiring them to use personal accounts in the early days of its service.

Getting corporate e-mail on your iPhone could become a snap by the end of next week.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It's not hard to imagine that a wide variety of previously skeptical iPhone customers would take a second look at the product if they realized they could use it for both work and play. The first people who widely adopted smartphones were business executives, who wanted products like Research In Motion's BlackBerry so they could have access to corporate e-mail while traveling. Phones based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, with its ties to the Exchange e-mail software, the Office suites, and the Windows desktop, were also able to exploit the business community's need for a mobile office.

Apple's first attempt at a smartphone came from a totally different place. The company swung for the fences, and connected, with its focus on consumer-friendly features like the touch-screen user interface and videos. People who had never even considered a smartphone were drawn to the iPhone, and they made the iPhone the third-best selling smartphone in the world during the fourth quarter, only the second full quarter it was available.

So now, after demonstrating that people like its iPhone, Apple has a chance to show how practical a device it can be as well. The release of a few influential enterprise applications could provide a reason for holdouts to take the iPhone plunge, or a reason for current iPhone users to upgrade once the 3G iPhone arrives.

Most notably, the iPhone currently doesn't fully support widely used e-mail software such as Microsoft's Exchange or IBM's Lotus Notes, making it much more difficult to get the IT department to support push e-mail to your iPhone the way they would a BlackBerry or a Treo. The iPhone can work with Exchange servers with some configuration changes, but that's not something that is widely supported inside IT departments that aren't located at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif.

In an interview with News.com's Ina Fried on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said licensing the Exchange protocol to Apple would be consistent with the company's practices but declined to say if in fact Apple was a licensee. Earlier this year, IBM denied several reports that it was about to announce a deal with Apple for licensing the Lotus Notes software, saying it wasn't ready to release the software. Perhaps one or both of those stances are about to change.

Peter Burrows over at BusinessWeek notes Apple could be firing a shot across RIM's bow next week if it announces full support for corporate e-mail software. RIM's BlackBerry handhelds are the second-leading smartphones in the world, and the leading product in the U.S., largely on the strength of corporate sales. Apple, however, sits just behind RIM in both markets after less than a year, almost completely on the strength of consumer sales.

RIM has been trying to break into the consumer market with products like the BlackBerry Curve, but now it might have to defend its own territory if Apple suddenly starts cuddling up to business customers. RIM has had this market largely to itself for a while, now that Palm has really fallen off the map and is focusing on getting back to basics.

Still, RIM might be able to deflect Apple's inroads into its own business by striking a deal with Apple to license the BlackBerry Connect software for iPhones. It already does this with Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, among others.

Apple could have other enterprise features in mind for next week. It could have been working with Salesforce.com, for example, on a version of Salesforce To Go--the company's smartphone product--for the iPhone. Maybe the iPhone will soon support reading and creating Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, adding to its read-only support for Word and Excel.

The feature perhaps most coveted by iPhone-using professionals is support for Microsoft ActiveSync, which would allow iPhone users to wirelessly sync their Outlook e-mail, contacts, and calendars with their Windows PCs, rather having to sync Outlook calendar and contacts by physically connecting your iPhone to your computer through iTunes. This would let you create a calendar appointment on the iPhone and have it automatically show up the next time you fire up Outlook on your desktop without having to mess with any cables.

There are ways to do wireless syncing between the iPhone and Outlook with unofficial third-party applications like Funambol, but IT departments don't like to support hacked software, and that version only supports contacts right now, not calendars or e-mail. Likewise, Synchronica's Web application only supports "pull" e-mail, not "push" e-mail that automatically delivers e-mail to your handset when received by your corporate e-mail server.

Until today, the details of the iPhone software development kit were the hot topic in the iPhone world. That will still be a very important development, and next week's event will provide a telling look at how Apple views the importance of third-party application development to the future of the iPhone.

But announcing deals with big third-party application developers--names like Microsoft, RIM, Adobe, Salesforce.com, or countless other possibilities--would signal that Apple is ready to pitch the iPhone as more than just a toy. Some of the earliest criticisms of the iPhone were that it didn't support the needs of the enterprise. Those might quickly go away by the end of next Thursday.

CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this report.