All over the world, iPhone 3G launches are going off seamlessly. So far, no one who wants to buy one seems to be being turned away empty handed. Except in Barcelona, this is, where the logistics of the entire iPhone 3G launch appear to have been handled by Manuel from Fawlty Towers:
You’re a telco, and you are launching probably the most important cellphone ever. You have been advertising for months, paying possibly millions on publicizing your new product line, of which are rightly proud. On launch day, what do you do?
If you are Spain’s Telefónica, you open two hours later than expected, having allowed a big queue to form. You then allow the people in, one by one, and enjoy the free publicity from the TV cameras outside. And then, you post a lone employee with a clipboard by the door to take names and numbers. And that’s it.
That’s right. No iPhones in Barcelona. When I asked an employee where they were he told me, “They still haven’t arrived.” Consider that a moment. The biggest cellphone launch of the year, and even the flagship store in Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) doesn’t have any handsets, and worse, doesn’t know when it will get them. One estimate was July 17th. Other shops were no better, with confused employees fending off hoards of potential buyers. Nowhere was there any information, although kind of camaraderie emerged when I kept bumping into the same people in different stores.
Spanish iPhone ‘Still Not Arrived’ [Gadget Lab]
Update: As the morning wears on and Apple’s activation servers implode, that opening sentence is looking more and more absurd. Mea culpa!
I’d say something’s faulty, Basil.
Same here in Belgium. Mobistar just confirmed last Tuesday that they would sell the Iphone today.
My “selected” retailshop did not have the phones in. And those arriving today were for pre-ordered only
¿Qué?
Were having all sorts of issues with O2′s credit checks in the uk too… people being given un-activated iPhones.
Still until it gets A2DP I’m not going to be queuing up…
As an avid fan of Manuel, brilliantly played by Andrew Sachs, I would just like to state unequivocally that if he was in charge of NASA, hamsters would have landed on Mars years ago with plenty of fresh clean towels!
“Most important phone ever?”
I believe Manuel was actually Portuguese in the show.
#7
He was from Barcelona.
In the dubbed Catalan version, Manuel was from Mexico (true).
Hey, what’s this continual stereotyping of siestas? I wish I had siestas. I am from Madrid. The Iphone wasn’t in other places including Belgium but does the headline say anything about Belgian waffles?
Ah, and Telefonica are a bunch of incompetent wankers.
Maybe you don’t need to be the first one in line to get it? Maybe you could wait a week?
Seems like that would be the logical thing to do.
I know nuthing.
Considering the closed and crippled DRM platform that is the iPhone, I won’t be getting one of these superphones until Apple allow me to do what I want on my property.
But of course, that’s not how they see the iPhone is it? It’s just a product channel and they can’t have any free competition hurting their monopoly can they?
My iMac and Macbook (both less than 6 months old) run whatever I want just fine thanks.
The iPhone is an overpriced turd. A well-polished turd, but a turd all the same.
I live in Valencia and now 25 days after the launch I still can’t get my fingers on one.
Here a post about my frustration right after the launch:
http://www.random-good-stuff.com/2008/07/14/iphone-is-not-for-everyone/
Nothing really has changed! Wasted so much time thanks to Movistar!