Think people are excited about the iPhone 4? The next smartphone from Apple went live for preorders this morning and the websites for AT&T and Apple couldn’t keep up with the demand.
The preorder capability went live early this morning and many users have been reporting multiple problems. AT&T’s servers appear to be overwhelmed too and this has a domino effect on Apple’s website because the company has to check the carrier’s servers for upgrade eligibility and other factors before letting a pre-order request go through.
“I’ve been attempting to pre-order the new iPhone 4 for the past 2 1/2 hours on Apple.com. Every time I attempt to order it, I always receive an error when Apple is attempting to communicate with AT&T to verify my account,” our own Daniel Perez said. “This is just another way AT&T has ruined the iPhone experience.”
Another thing that may be contributing to the problem is that Apple also just released an Apple Store app for its iOS products this morning. This app enables users to pre-order the iPhone 4 directly on their devices. Well, it would if the websites were working.
So, what’s all the fuss about? Well, despite the early prototype leaks, the next iPhone still looks pretty impressive. I’d argue its the biggest update to the iPhone lineup we’ve seen yet. The design is new and Apple says its the thinnest smartphone on the planet. The camera has been boosted to 5 megapixels and there’s a front-facing camera that can be used for video calling. The screen has also been improved and the Retina Display packs 326 pixels per inch – supposedly beyond the limit at which the human eye can resolve individual pixels.
But it’s not just the exterior, as the iPhone 4 rocks the A4 processor inside. This is the same chip that powers the blazing fast iPad, so it should help Apple’s smartphone perform. This should especially come in handy now that iOS rocks multitasking and background processing.
Have you been trying to pre-order an iPhone 4? Let us know your experiences in the comments.
[Update]
The madness continues online but we’re seeing that using the Apple Store app on your iPhone or iPod Touch makes pre-ordering much easier. In fact, we’ve pre-ordered an iPhone 4 using the app and it was a pleasant experience. The whole ordering process via the app took about three minutes.
If you’re still going through the website, you may be hit with one of these:
This is what the Apple Store app for iPhone looks like when you preorder and iPhone 4: