launch posts

Update: Yes, well, so much for that theory. The Iconic Device is revealed as the Droid Pro, complete with a full keyboard. That's one tall phone.

Yes, we know, another day and another iPhone/Verizon rumor -- but this one comes with a photo and a rather interesting backstory.

Here come the puzzle pieces. Verizon has been beefing up on staffing recently, including what's believed to be a near doubling of the service staff assigned to handle number porting requests. All around the iPhone-lovin' world, the expectation is that we'll hear an announcement before the end of the year with a hardware launch in early 2011. (Compare and contrast Big Red's stance on Windows Phone 7.)

Now we hear from a VZW insider that training notices have been sent out to customer service personnel describing an "Iconic Device" that will be available for pre-order on November 9, 2010. The device is expected to be in very high demand, and the training goes on to cover how to handle the pre-orders as they come in. Our source even came through with the internal display you see above.

Update: Reader CJ points out that the Motorola Droid Pro is scheduled to be available for pre-order on the same day, with a similar Iconic Device identifier. The screens might be referring to the same device launch, but they might not.

Is it a mortal lock? No, but Apple does like to announce things on Tuesdays. We'll see.

GTA TeleGuam has announced that the iPhone 4 will be available tomorrow, September 24th, on its mpulse wireless network. Those wanting a head start can reserve one now [Ed. note: this link is now broken, sorry for the inconvenience], though GTA's website does warn, "All phones are available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last."

Roland Certeza, GTA's executive vice president of sales, was all enthusiasm this week. "Customer response to iPhone in Guam has been overwhelming," he said, "and we are confident the unique features of iPhone 4 will be received with great excitement by our customers." While we couldn't find pricing or plan information on the GTA website, Certeza did say, "GTA customers will find it easy and affordable to enjoy the great new innovations of iPhone 4 with our range of plans and pricing."

If you're in Guam for the launch, let us know! We'd love to see your pictures and hear your story. Good luck and have fun.

[Via Macsimum News]

Here's a fun rumor to give you something to dream about this weekend. Digitimes is reporting that Apple is on the hunt for parts for the iPad 2. The company is reportedly in the validation stage with a few suppliers for touch-based displays and reinforced glass, prepping production on a second generation iPad for a launch in early 2011.

That's all we've got -- there's no details on what new features the iPad might have (although a camera would be an excellent guess) or any other way it might differ from the current model, but it looks like most of the speculation has been on target so far. There's still quite a while to wait (and honestly, I'd still recommend buying an iPad if you want one right now -- next year is still a ways away, and 4.2 will make even the "old" units seem new again), but there's almost no doubt another iPad is going to happen next year.

[via TMO]

Apple has announced that the iPad will be officially launched in five Latin American countries and China tomorrow, September 17, 2010.

The über-popular iPad will be available in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru starting tomorrow. In China, the Wi-Fi model is launching, while the Wi-Fi + 3G is listed on the online Chinese Apple Store as "Coming Soon."

TUAW also received a number of tips this morning that U.S. electronics retailer Micro Center is beginning to sell iPads in a number of locations. Recent rumors also point to mega-retailers Target and Walmart selling the iPad before the critical Christmas buying season.

With the influx of new markets and retailers, it's a good thing Apple is ramping up production of iPads.

[via AppleInsider]

Imagine if Apple's handset prices in the US weren't announced at WWDC, and the subsidy pricing was up to AT&T. Imagine if AT&T told potential iPhone customers that the iPhone 4 would launch on July 30, and pricing info would be released well in advance of that.

Now imagine the weeks leading up to July 30 went by, and AT&T didn't say a word about the iPhone 4's pricing, even though many other countries had already released handset and plan info. It's July 29, and instead of working with its customers, throwing them a bone, giving them some sort of information, AT&T instead remained utterly reticent and deleted any posts on its forums remotely critical of its handling of the situation. Imagine AT&T followed up by deleting all mention of the iPhone 4 from its website: no pricing info, no pre-orders, not even a "coming soon" link.

Imagine that July 30 comes along, with the usual line-ups happening nationwide. You'll also have to imagine there's no Apple Stores, and AT&T is the only place in the country where you can buy a subsidized iPhone. At eight in the morning on the day the iPhone 4 is supposed to launch, there's no trace of it at any AT&T store, or Best Buy, or Wal-Mart, or anywhere else you might reasonably expect to find an iPhone 4 on the day it's launched. And even in the midst of all this, and with media reports flying about that Apple's partnership with AT&T has been cancelled, AT&T still doesn't have a single scrap of information to spare for its loyal customers. Not a word of explanation. Not a single excuse. Nothing. And no iPhone 4 anywhere in the nation.

Now replace "AT&T" with "Vodafone," and you have a picture of the iPhone "launch" in New Zealand. I put "launch" in heavy sarcasm quotes, because the iPhone 4 is not launching in New Zealand today... and thanks to Vodafone, no one has any idea when or even if it will be coming to New Zealand at a subsidised price. Read on for a textbook example of how to generate a PR disaster, and also an example of how not to treat potential customers.

Update: I just got off the phone with my local Vodafone retailer, and they claim they will be selling the iPhone 4 today starting at mid-day, but only to those willing to sign a 2-year plan; they are not selling unsubsidized handsets, and the iPhone 4 will be available for online sale "in the coming weeks." I'll be heading over there momentarily to try my luck, and will update later whether I'm successful in getting one or not.

Update 2: It turns out the store reps were correct, and my local Vodafone retailer did indeed get a supply of iPhone 4s just before noon. An orderly group of about a dozen customers lined up outside the store while Vodafone employees set up iPhone promotional materials and waited for clearance from corporate to sell the units. In a case of "better late than never," Vodafone sent a text to all iPhone owners at exactly 12:00 telling people iPhone 4 was available in limited quantities. By that time, it wasn't clear if there'd be enough stock to go around for people who may have given up hope earlier in the day, although store employees didn't seem to be worried about having enough iPhones for the group which showed up at mid-day. There's no way to know how many potential early adopters might have gone home with an iPhone 4 this morning, but who will now have to wait for more available stock to arrive.

I now have a 32 GB iPhone 4 syncing with my Mac, thanks in large part to the efficiency and friendliness of the retail staff at my local Vodafone store, who handled the launch with brilliant professionalism. If their company's upper management had handled things half as well as the rank and file, I might not have needed to write this article in the first place.

Even with the lines, the preorder confusion, the crazy mixed-up Thursday chaos and the weekend madness, there's a new high-water mark for Apple product launches. The company announced via a press release today that it sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s through the end of Saturday 6/26, including those shipped to customers directly earlier in the week.

Chairman Jobs is pleased and apologetic, according to the release: " This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history.... Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."

Nice work, Apple. Now, about those death grip and proximity sensor issues... based on our unofficial listener survey in last night's extended-remix talkcast, there's still some work to be done on this blockbuster-yet-quirky phone.

More moments & photos from the 5th Avenue store iPhone 4 launch, where they are taking about 40 pre-ordered customers for every 5 off of the walk-in line.

We've got store reports coming in to our @ask_tuaw Twitter account, so if you've got a picture of the scene at your store, upload it to a convenient spot and let us know!

Gallery #1: More from the line


Gallery #2: Overnight scenes from Matthew Redmond

The cheering, the clapping, the credit checks and the service provisioning: it's iPhone 4 day in NYC, with the promise of sweltering temperatures encouraging those in line to get in and get finished as quick as they can. Video of the first customers above, gallery of the scene below.

When they say 'the line is around the block' -- well, this is the line, that's the block, and this is what it means. Hundreds of people -- much bigger than the iPad launch line or the 3GS, by my estimation -- lined up around the 5th Avenue block of the Apple Store, waiting for the iPhone 4.

Back in a second with the video of the first walk-in customers.

It's New York City, people; deposed late-night talk show hosts are always walking around looking for a good time. Yes, the 5th Avenue Apple Store iPhone 4 line is officially on Team CoCo now after a brief visit from Conan O'Brien, captured here by reader Matthew Redmond.

More pics from the waiting game in the gallery below.

We're eagerly awaiting tomorrow's iPhone 4 retail launch, even as the pre-orders begin to show up on desks and on doorsteps.

Photographer Matthew Redmond is in line at the 5th Avenue NYC flagship store, and he's sending us pictures all through the day and night as the enthusiasm builds (and it better; it's getting up into the 90s today in the city).

Thanks to Matthew for his pictures!

Update: Sorry, we dropped a paragraph in the editing process -- the firefighters and ambulance pictures, you ask? One of the line standers (according to Matt, a guy who was paid by another would-be buyer to hold his place in line) walked off unexpectedly and then collapsed in the middle of the street. Emergency personnel responded, and the side street was closed for about 20 minutes while he was treated.

As you can see, you simply touch the Settings iPad app, tap on Cellular Data, enter your payment details, and boom! you're presented with a Cellular Data Account page which shows you your Cellular Data Plan account number, the status of your plan (how many days you have remaining), the billing period, and the abilities to add data or change your current plan and also add an international data plan.

Robert also notes that AT&T apparently assigns you a new mobile number for billing purposes.

We can imagine AT&T will be inundated with signups this weekend, so let's hope their servers and data towers are up to it.

Seth Godin has a great post up that serves as a good capper on what may have been Apple's best product launch ever. He puts the money made by Apple last Saturday morning at around $150 million, and even if that's not exactly right, I have to say that having been through a few Apple launches now, I think the iPad's launch was the smoothest and easiest opening I've seen -- for all of the complaints and problems people who haven't bought an iPad seem to have, those who did buy one on Saturday seemed happy to me. So how did Apple pull it all off?

As Godin says, they started years ago. Apple is one of the only companies in the world with not only the power to set up limits on access on a device this big, but also keep a rabid fanbase hyped and waiting. Apple has created an image designed exactly for releasing products like this, with the secrecy and speculation and announcement events, and so on. And the company has backed up that image with pristine engineering and design -- as Godin says, rather than be everything to everyone, it promised a few things to a certain group of people (the iPad can't do Flash or multitask or take pictures), and then delivered (but it can do the things it does really, really well).

And perhaps most importantly, when launch time came around, Apple's management didn't focus on "launching," they focused on simply getting the product into customers' hands. The iPhone had all kinds of issues with setup and purchasing and activating and so on, but Apple went out of its way during the iPad launch to make sure customers had the iPad when they were supposed to --waived shipping fees, plenty of inventory in stores, and a push for delivery at exactly the right time. That's how you make $150 million in a day: Promise what you'll deliver, and deliver what you'll promise.

The crystal-clear facade of Boston's Boylston Street Apple Store* beckoned and a slew of customers heeded the call this morning to greet the iPad. By the time I arrived at 8am, a line had formed down the street and around the corner -- a few hundred people at least. A second line for pre-order customers formed later in the morning, and by 9am was just as long as the first line. The store's interior was hidden by a black curtain that ran the length of the building.

The mood was jovial, with everyone discussing their plans for the new device. Apple Store employees were moving up and down the line, making chit-chat and offering candy, water and coffee. The weather was fine (unlike the rainy iPhone launch), if not a little cold.