Approximately 36 hours after the release of the iPhone 2.0 firmware, existing iPhone customers still can't download it. iTunes says it's unavailable. Apple should have done better.
We already know that on Friday, there were severe activation problems with the iPhone 3G. This isn't exactly a surprise, perhaps, after the new in-store activation procedures and AT&T's dismal performance last year.
What is surprising is that approximately 36 hours after Apple said the new system software would be available for existing customers to access, it still isn't. At least not for everyone.
I have the first-generation iPhone I bought a year ago--and as of midday Saturday, the new v2.0 firmware was unavailable for download. iTunes tells me, incorrectly, that "this version of the iPhone software (1.1.4) is the current version." See the above screenshot.
This is in addition to what my CNET News colleague Erica Ogg reported on Friday: some existing iPhones have been bricked by software update glitches. At least that didn't happen to me.
I'm not exactly desperate to upgrade to the new system software (I'm at a political conference in Las Vegas and am mostly focused on what's happening here).
But this points to a bad miscalculation on Apple's part. Why didn't it come up with a better estimate of how many people would be connecting to its servers and add sufficient capacity? Apple probably is curbing existing customers' access to software updates to prevent its servers from overheating (this is at least a better failure mode than yesterday morning's odd errors).
This is understandable, perhaps, but it's disappointing--especially because this should have been preventable with even a modicum of advance planning.
Update 1:50 p.m. PDT: iTunes is now showing the update as available. I should have noted that I already upgraded to the latest version of iTunes. That wasn't the problem--Apple's servers were.
(Credit:
Apple)
Update at 10:08 a.m. PDT, with clarification on how users' e-mail will be handled.
Apple's MobileMe service is primed to be relaunched this week, ahead of the Friday launch of the iPhone 3G. That means subscribers to .Mac will find the service taken offline for a six-hour stretch as Apple makes the transition, according to a post in MacRumors.com.
The www.mac.com site will go down on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. PDT, leaving .Mac subscribers unable to access the site or use .Mac services, except for .MacMail via their desktop applications, iPhone or iPod Touch. In fact, existing .Mac users may have already noticed the ability to receive and send e-mail at an @me.com address if they so request. Other mac.com subscribers will be grandfathered in, allowing them to continue receiving e-mail at their mac.com address, while also receiving a new me.com address.
When the site relaunches as MobileMe, users will find a few changes, according to MacRumors.com:
The revamped .Mac service will offer Web-based e-mail, calendar, address book, photo gallery, and storage capabilities as well as "Push" sync services.
A one-year subscription to MobileMe will cost $99, which is similar to the .Mac price, but purchasers of an iPhone 3G will be able to score a subscription for $69 on Friday, the report notes.
The line for the Apple iPhone 3G began to form Friday--an entire week before the device goes on sale.
Frankly, one shouldn't encourage such behavior by actually covering it. But if I were in Manhattan--instead of Austin, Texas--I, too, would have interviewed them in person by now.
The queue outside of Apple's Fifth Avenue store, covered first by GearDiary and then Engadget, apparently hasn't been formed by iPhone co-dependents, though.
It is instead made up of a group of people who may want to 1) set a world's record for standing in line to buy a product and 2) have a social-agricultural-political message they want the world to hear. However, it was difficult from the video interview on Engadget to determine what the group actually stands for.
On Saturday, the Apple 2.0 blog seemed to get further with the group's agenda. The group, which started off with about 10 on Friday and was slimmed down to 5 by Saturday morning after a night of rainfall, apparently supports organic farming and sustainability for the planet. According to Apple 2.0, they may be interested in turning the White House Lawn into an organic garden and they may be planning to buy iPhones for the presidential nominees.
The seemingly ad hoc group is certainly savvy in deciding to use the iPhone 3G to garner some publicity. However, to be perfectly honest, most mainstream journalists feel more comfortable interviewing gadget nuts rather than alternative souls hoping to use the media to change the world.
Update at 10:52 a.m. PDT: Information about monthly text messaging added
AT&T reaffirmed pricing for the iPhone 3G on Tuesday, noting that eligible customers can snag the new smartphone for a discount: $199 with an 8GB flash drive and $299 for 16GB.
AT&T will begin offering Apple's iPhone 3G at its retail stores beginning July 11 at 8 a.m. local time. AT&T is the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S.
Under the plan, the discounted price will be available to customers who have purchased any iPhone before July 11, who are activating a new customer line with AT&T, or who were eligible for an upgrade discount at the time of purchase. (Eligibility for an upgrade discount, the carrier said, is generally determined by amount of time remaining on a current contract and the payment history.)
To be eligible, customers must also sign a two-year contract. Apple had revealed the $199 and $299 pricing for the iPhone 3G at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Those who are not eligible for an upgrade discount can buy the iPhone 3G for $399 for the 8GB model or $499 for the 16GB version. Both require a two-year contract as well.
Customers who purchase the phone without a contract will pay $599 for the 8GB version or $699 for the 16GB model.
The phones will come with the iPhone 2.0 software preloaded on the devices, which includes such business-class e-mail through Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and the iPhone Software Development Kit for creating customized applications. AT&T will also offer its Yellowpages.com Mobile for iPhone on the devices.
There will be an activation fee of either $18 for existing customers eligible for an upgrade, or $36 for new customers.
AT&T is requiring customers to activate their phones in the stores, as the carrier looks to reduce the number of customers who may try to unlock, or hack, the phones to run on other carriers' networks.
AT&T is launching four voice and unlimited data plans for the iPhone 3G.
The AT&T Nation Unlimited plan will include unlimited anytime minutes for $129.99 a month, while the AT&T Nation 450 plan includes 450 anytime minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes for $69.99 a month.
The carrier is also offering its Nation 1350 plan, which includes 1,350 anytime minutes for $109.99 a month, and Nation 900 plan that includes 900 anytime minutes for $89.99 per month. Both of these plans include unlimited night and weekend minutes.
And for folks who engage in tons of text messaging, AT&T is charging $5 for every 200 text messages; $15 for every 1,500 messages; and $20 for unlimited text messages.
For more details on the device, see Crave's iPhone 3G FAQ.
It will cost you north of the border.
(Credit: Apple)If you think AT&T's iPhone 3G service plans are expensive, just consider what Rogers is forcing on our Canadian friends.
Friday, the carrier announced its service plans for the iPhone 3G, none of which include unlimited data use. Instead, Rogers will cap data each month at a certain amount, which will range from 400MB for the cheapest service plan ($60 Canadian or $59.23 U.S.) to 2GB for the most expensive plan ($115 Canadian or $113.64 U.S.).
Though 2GB is a lot of data, we're not sure how a customer is supposed to know what 2GB even means in real-world use. True, you can track your data use on the iPhone, but it's not like tracking calling minutes.
In its press release, Rogers does provide a convenient chart to gauge your data usage--apparently, 2G amounts to 16,000 Web pages (who knew?)--but we don't approve of such an arrangement at all. The iPhone's Web browser is one of its top attractions, particularly on a 3G network, and asking users to limit their data certainly isn't putting the "Internet in your pocket." Rogers is offering unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Rogers and Fido hotspots, but that in itself is limiting if you have to be in one place.
What's more, the data restrictions aren't the half of it. While AT&T's cheapest iPhone 3G service plan ($69 per month) includes 450 anytime minutes, the cheapest Rogers plan (the one with 400MB of data) only gets 150 anytime minutes. Ouch. Similarly Rogers' most expensive plan includes only 800 anytime minutes while AT&T's priciest plan ($129 per month) includes unlimited anytime minutes. Double ouch.
Come on, Rogers, you have to give your customers a little more. Especially when your contracts run three years.
T-Mobile is gearing up to offer a 3G iPhone in Germany for only 1 euro, provided users sign up for its monthly 69-euro service plan, according to a Reuters report on Monday.
That translates into an iPhone purchase of roughly $1.55, and a monthly service plan of $107.
Under T-Mobile's offering, the telecom provider will sell the phones with 8GB of memory, while a 16GB phone will go for 19.95 euros, or nearly $31.
T-Mobile's announcement of its 3G iPhone offering comes a week after Apple rolled out the latest version of its popular cell phone.
T-Mobile in Germany is underwriting the deeply discounted phone with the help of a renegotiated contract with Apple, which no longer requires the carrier to share some of the revenues generated via iPhone calls with Apple, according to the report.
This move has yet to be seen in the U.S., where AT&T is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone. However, AT&T no longer has to share its revenue with Apple.
Whether AT&T will eventually drop the current 8GB iPhone price of $199 and 16GB iPhone price of $299 to just a couple bucks has yet to be seen.
I have to admit that during the past year I've been gloating to my CNET Asia colleagues over the iPhone. I just had to savor the fact that at long last the United States got a hot tech gadget before they did. At least with high-end cell phones, that almost never happens.
But in just a few weeks my bragging days will be over. On July 11, the new iPhone 3G lands not only in the United States with AT&T, but also in 21 19 other countries. In his WWDC keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs included France and Belgium in the initial release list, but Orange has confirmed that French customers will have to wait until July 17. And across the border, Belgium's Mobistar has yet to set a date.
Then, later this year, Apple will ship to an additional 48 nations in every continent except Antarctica. That's 70 countries, kids--a far cry from the six nations in which the current iPhone is available today.
Interestingly, countries such as Australia and Italy will have two supporting carriers. Mainland China and Russia are two big places missing from the list, along with Taiwan, Korea, most of Southeast Asia, and almost the entire Middle East. So for those who missed the rapid-fire map shown during the at the keynote, here's a full list with supporting carriers.
July 11 releases
- Australia - Optus, Telstra and Vodafone
- Austria - Orange and T-Mobile
- Belgium - Mobistar
- Canada - Rogers
- Denmark - Telia
- Finland - Sonera
- Germany - T-Mobile
- Hong Kong - Hutchinson Telecom
- Ireland - O2
- Italy - Telecom Italia and Vodafone
- Japan - Softbank
- Mexico - America Movil
- Netherlands - T-Mobile
- New Zealand - Vodafone
- Norway - NetCom
- Portugal - Orange and Vodafone
- Spain - Telefonica
- Sweden - Telia
- United Kingdom - O2
- Switzerland - Swisscom and Orange
Later releases
- Argentina - America Movil
- Botswana - Orange
- Brazil - America Movil
- Cameroon - Orange
- Central African Republic - Orange
- Chile - America Movil
- Colombia - America Movil
- Croatia - T-Mobile
- Czech Republic - Vodafone and T-Mobile
- Dominican Republic - Orange and America Movil
- Ecuador - America Movil
- Egypt - Orange and Vodafone
- El Salvador - America Movil
- Equatorial Guinea - Orange
- Estonia - Eesti Mobii Telefon
- France - Orange (July 17)
- Guatemala - America Movil
- Guinea - Orange
- Guinea-Bissau - Orange
- Greece - Vodafone
- Honduras - America Movil
- Hungary - T-Mobile
- India - Bharti Airtel
- Ivory Coast - Orange
- Jamaica - America Movil
- Jordan - Orange
- Kenya - Orange
- Latvia - LMT
- Liechtenstein - Swisscom
- Lithuania - OmniTel
- Macau - Hutchinson Telecom
- Madagascar - Orange
- Mali - Orange
- Malta - Vodafone
- Mauritius - Orange
- Nicaragua - America Movil
- Niger - Orange
- Paraguay - America Movil
- Peru - America Movil
- Philippines - GlobeTelecom
- Poland - Orange and Era
- Romania - Orange
- Senegal - Orange
- Singapore - SingTel
- Qatar - Vodafone
- Slovakia - Orange and T-Mobile
- South Africa - Vodacom
- Turkey - Vodafone
- Uruguay - America Movil
Updated June 11, 1 p.m. PDT to reflect French and Belgian developments and additional carrier information.
LOS ANGELES--Apple's upgraded iPhone didn't inspire fear in at least two of the biggest subscription music sites--even before they learned that the device wouldn't let people download music via the new 3G network.
"I'm not trembling," Anu Kirk, Rhapsody's director of product management, said Monday at the iHollywood conference. "I'm sure they are going to sell a lot of second-generation iPhones. It's a fantastic product but they can't take over the United States with just one carrier."
Kirk was speaking on a panel discussing the mobile music category and specifically about cell phones as music players. The discussion took place as Apple CEO Steve Jobs was introducing the new iPhone 3G at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Kirk doesn't think the iPhone 3G can duplicate iPod's success, at least not with just AT&T as the phone's only carrier. Any debate about the iPhone's dominance over music apparently has to wait.
The mobile version of the iTunes music store will remain accessible only over the phone's Wi-Fi connection, according to CNET's Donald Bell, who wrote cited Apple's iPhone 3G product page. Bell wrote that "it does seem like Apple has missed an obvious opportunity to allow users more ways to purchase music."
Rhapsody and Napster already enable many iPhone competitors to download music over 3G. This had to come as welcome news to those companies as rumors swirl in the music industry that Apple is considering whether to launch a subscription service.
In March, the Financial Times reported that Apple is considering an all-you-can-eat plan in which users would receive free access to iTunes "in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices. Sources told CNET News.com that the music labels would agree if Apple shared revenue on device sales. So far, nothing has come of it.
And nothing will--or at least that's what Kirk thinks anyway. His suspicion is that Apple won't enter the subscription business because it conflicts with the company's prime goal of selling hardware.
"Apple's model is to get you to buy a bigger device every 18 months or two years," Kirk said. "You fill up your iPod, you go, 'Oh, I'm going to buy the new iPod with twice as much memory.' In a subscription world, the size of your device matters a lot less cause you can swap out the content. In a world like that the consumer has a lot less incentive to buy a bigger device."
Subscriptions aside, is Apple choosing to ignore cell phones as music players at this point? It wouldn't be missing out on much.
The U.S. consumer has largely ignored their phones as music machines. Kirk noted that the sector is hobbled by the lack of memory in most phones to store music and the high costs. These often include paying for cell phone and data-service plans on top of the music.
Not what you would call a good deal.
As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs used his time on stage at the Worldwide Developers Conference to announce a new version of the iPhone.
We've pulled together our video clips of his introduction, along with demos of some of its new features, including GPS, the faster 3G wireless technology, and MobileMe, a service that syncs users' e-mail and calendar info on every device they register. Follow the jump for all those videos. And go here to see a roundup of all the third-party apps shown off Monday.
... Read moreSAN FRANCISCO--The blogosphere is likely exploding with feedback to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address Monday, including his introduction of the new iPhone 3G with GPS and a low-end price of $199.
But we thought we'd go old-school and get some real-life response from real-life developers outside Moscone West, where the conference is taking place this week.
No one was surprised by Jobs' announcements, but they were plenty excited, especially about the lower iPhone pricing, which they say will help get the device into more consumers' hands. They were also excited about Apple's new iteration of its .Mac service, MobileMe--although the name certainly didn't roll off their tongues.
Click the link below to hear interviews with Scott Klauminzer of Seattle, Ralf Mandt-Rauch of Germany, Guy Horrocks and Layton Duncan of New Zealand, Stefan Seiz of Germany, and Claudine Beaumont, who works for The Daily Telegraph in London.
AUDIO
Geek on the Street: Steve Jobs keynote
What WWDC attendees thought of the Apple CEO's iPhone announcements.
Download mp3 (2.37MB)
