UK iPhone launch hampered by IE?

Seems everyone but the beloved Apple is to blame?

Why not blame the FanBois, too many want the gadget at the same time, eh?

I was 3rd in the queue at the Chesterfield O2 store and it took 35 minutes to upgrade me from the original iPhone. The staff couldn't connect to O2's servers and when they tried the "backup" manual system, couldn't get through on the phone!

Eventually, they copied my debit card, gave me the phone I'd been staring at on the desk for 30 minutes and I was away.

Unfortunately for those in the store not upgrading they were all still waiting while the store Manager tried getting through to O2's helpline!

Even if the computer system couldn't cope, you'd have thought O2 would have arranged for more phone lines/staff to cope with the inevitable avalanche of telephoned orders from their own stores.

Pretty lame to blame IE for this, I mean we're all Mac fans here, but it's just embarrassing to always see this Microsoft hate at TUAW.com. It really just makes it look true what people always say about Mac fans.

Boo hoo on the mis-leading headline. As a software developer responsible for deploying web-based applications, the whole "blame the browser" angle is no excuse. Developing a web-based system that's Windows-only and IE-only is unacceptable.

Looks like the only winners here are the folks at VMWare, who sold a bunch of copies of Fusion!

7.30pm, still no activation through iTunes :(

Hey there people im an o2 employee who was working today
the system "gateway" crashed because basically the majority of stores in the UK that opened at 8:02 along with the apple stores through out the contry who also are using our system. There is well over a thousand o2 stores in the contry along with a few large apple stores and this inevitably lead to a curnch on the system. We was able to combat this by processing the contracts manually. It was not the internet explorer that caused this crash but the system we use so i would say the titling of this thread is incorrect. However because we were quite a clever store we were getting through around 10 contracts an hour so it seemed pretty normal. One thing I must note is that people shouldnt be so shocked as depending the customer a contract can actually take longer than an hour. Also the handling of the situation was dealt with very well as we all across the business had contingency plans if this happend which meant we was still able to keep things moving which I felt was good as it meant customers where at least getting the phones and not being turned away.

Loathe as I am to even appear to be defending O2, since being IE only is stupid, but do you not think that someone, somewhere at Apple would not have thought to do a test run of the process?

i coulda swore ie was released on os x a year ago...
maybe it was a DarWINE compatibility announcement.

How does IE affect the activation? Why would Apple use IE browser object in iTunes, i would have thought it would have been Safari or even Mozilla.

SAME HERE...


stand on the line at 6:30 AM (the forth one in edmonton brunch)
store opens at 8:05
got the iphone at 8:30
took her 20 mints just for trying the activate on IE but didn't work...
so she called and then the manager came alonge and said you can't do it on the phone!
so either get the "get way" (that's the name of the system they use on IE) to work or just do it manually on the paper!

so I was sitting there for 45 mints she filled everything up and charged me £159.00 then I got off the EDMONTON store. and I was the first one out! as the people in front of my were still in the process...

anyways, i love the new one and 3G speed ROCKS
plus the GPS works fine

let see when can we jailbreak this and put more exiting app!


(shame on O2 all the way)