3G iPhone Rush and iPhone Firmware Update Leads to Long Lines (Again) and Takes Apple Servers Offline   7/11/2008 - 536 views, 1 Comment

But perhaps more surprising is what happened to those who were content to continue to use their “old” iPhone, and who had waited patiently for the 2.0 version of the iPhone firmware - which was released concurrently today with the iPhone 3G, through the iTunes store.

Because at least those who waited all night outside in lines at Apple and AT&T stores across the country got their new iPhones (well, except for those who had the poor luck to be at the back of the line at stores which had only limited supplies of the new iPhone).

But many of the people who had waited patiently to connect their current iPhone to the iTunes store to get their version 2.0 iPhone firmware update got …are you ready for this?

The white screen of death.

Because it turns out that the iTunes store was so overwhelmed with people wanting to update their iPhone that the iTunes store crashed!

Even worse, there was no way for them to know that they weren’t going to get their firmware update until after their iTunes software had already wiped their iPhone clean, and then tried connecting to the iTunes store, leaving their iPhone completely braindead and useless, and displaying the white screen of death.

As Joel Comm, of “Adsense Secrets” fame, and one of the victims of the white screen of death, put it, “Wow, even APPLE screwed up in underestimating the bandwidth and server power that would be required to pull this update off without a burp. They didn’t just burp. They blew chunks all over the place…”

Did this happen to you?

Or did you wait in line for a new 3G iPhone?

Either way, was it worth it?