Apple is hard at work attempting to come up with an iPhone 5 on Verizon and AT&T for launch this summer which is a worthy improvement over the iPhone 4. Expectations are high, as Apple just finished managing to do exactly that with the iPad 2 and its predecessor, the iPad 1. But something else happened today: for reasons not yet immediately clear, Apple forgot how to launch a product in a competent fashion, as the iPad 2 launches was a debacle from top to bottom. Coming on the heels of the plagued iPhone 4 launch last year, serious concerns are now on the table regarding Apple’s high profile launch day extravaganzas for its new products which had been, until recently, a positive part of the user experience. With the AT&T and Verizon iPhone 5 launch, here are five things Apple has gotten wrong in either or both of its past two major launches which it needs to clear up in time for a non-kludged rollout of the fifth generation iPhone.
Inventory
The iPhone 5, particularly by virtue of being the first iPhone to roll out on both Verizon and AT&T simultaneously, should be the most sought after day-one product in Apple history. Apple has developed a habit of late in which it brings products to market with only a fraction of the inventory built up to satisfy initial demand. Last year, many would-be day one iPhone 4 buyers went home empty handed. Most people who wanted an iPad 2 went home without one, even those who had waited in line several hours before it went on sale. Apple would have done well to delay the iPad 2 launch by a month in order to manufacture enough units to actually meet demand something it’ll hopefully keep in mind when deciding the iPhone 5 launch date, after the lost sales and revenue of yesterday’s faux-launch of the iPad 2 sinks in.
Pick a color
The iPhone 5 needs to either come in white or not come in white. There is no such thing as in between and yet Apple has tried to pull that off twice in a row now. The iPhone 4 was announced in white but got delayed an embarrassing number of times and now the company won’t even speak of it. The iPad 2 was announced in white, but unless you were one of the first ten or twenty people in line at an Apple Store, you didn’t have the option of buying one as all but literally none were manufactured and/or delivered to stores. Rather than repeating this embarrassment with the iPhone 5, Apple would do well to simply move on and not have a white iPhone 5 or make a commitment to actually manufacturing more than a few dozen of them. One or the other.
Move along
The original iPhone launch back in 2007 was run so smoothly that even if you were a few hundred people back in line, you’d be making your purchase within about twenty minutes once the doors opened. But for reasons which can only be satisfactorily explained by someone at Apple getting fired first thing Monday morning, Apple decided that iPad 2 sales should happen as slowly as possible. By the end of the day (or more accurately, the night), Apple Store employees were left only able to apologize to customers for what they knew was the sloppiest, most massively incompetent Apple product launch in as long as anyone could remember. With the iPhone 5 launch, there’s no reason why Apple can’t simply revert back to what worked with its earlier iPhone launches.
Online
Apple may have pulled the plug on online iPad 2 preorders because it knew it had such little inventory to go around that allowing even a small amount of pre-orders would have drained the tiny existing supply down to the point that there would have been literally no inventory at stores on launch day. Or Apple may have been attempting to ensure that there were in fact retail lines, as the ease of Verizon iPhone 4 preorders clearly hurt Apple in the form of ignorant headlines such as “Verizon iPhone 4 flops as evidenced by short lines,” with the ‘flopping’ part ultimately turning out not to have been true after all. Regardless of Apple’s motivation for mixing online preorders this time, there simply must be iPhone 5 preorders allowed. After yesterday’s disaster, even some of Apple’s most eager customers will likely never be willing to show up for a launch day line again, meaning that they’ll stay home and order their iPhone 5 online once they’re allowed to. Might as well let them order it in advance.
Keep it simple
When the iPhone 4 launched, it came in three total configurations. The iPad 2 launched with eighteen options as a result of two colors, three network options, and three capacities. The confusing number of options turned an already doomed iPad 2 launch into an even more absurd experience, as employees desperately tried (and failed) to convince customers to go home with a Verizon iPad 2 after the AT&T iPad 2 had almost immediately sold out. It would have been much easier if there had simply been a single hybrid 3G iPad 2 model which worked on either AT&T or Verizon. By the time of the iPhone 5, Apple must seriously consider offering a single iPhone 5 model which works on both carriers. Otherwise, buying an iPhone 5 will become as absurdly confusing as buying an iPad 2.
Inventory
The iPhone 5, particularly by virtue of being the first iPhone to roll out on both Verizon and AT&T simultaneously, should be the most sought after day-one product in Apple history. Apple has developed a habit of late in which it brings products to market with only a fraction of the inventory built up to satisfy initial demand. Last year, many would-be day one iPhone 4 buyers went home empty handed. Most people who wanted an iPad 2 went home without one, even those who had waited in line several hours before it went on sale. Apple would have done well to delay the iPad 2 launch by a month in order to manufacture enough units to actually meet demand something it’ll hopefully keep in mind when deciding the iPhone 5 launch date, after the lost sales and revenue of yesterday’s faux-launch of the iPad 2 sinks in.
Pick a color
The iPhone 5 needs to either come in white or not come in white. There is no such thing as in between and yet Apple has tried to pull that off twice in a row now. The iPhone 4 was announced in white but got delayed an embarrassing number of times and now the company won’t even speak of it. The iPad 2 was announced in white, but unless you were one of the first ten or twenty people in line at an Apple Store, you didn’t have the option of buying one as all but literally none were manufactured and/or delivered to stores. Rather than repeating this embarrassment with the iPhone 5, Apple would do well to simply move on and not have a white iPhone 5 or make a commitment to actually manufacturing more than a few dozen of them. One or the other.
Move along
The original iPhone launch back in 2007 was run so smoothly that even if you were a few hundred people back in line, you’d be making your purchase within about twenty minutes once the doors opened. But for reasons which can only be satisfactorily explained by someone at Apple getting fired first thing Monday morning, Apple decided that iPad 2 sales should happen as slowly as possible. By the end of the day (or more accurately, the night), Apple Store employees were left only able to apologize to customers for what they knew was the sloppiest, most massively incompetent Apple product launch in as long as anyone could remember. With the iPhone 5 launch, there’s no reason why Apple can’t simply revert back to what worked with its earlier iPhone launches.
Online
Apple may have pulled the plug on online iPad 2 preorders because it knew it had such little inventory to go around that allowing even a small amount of pre-orders would have drained the tiny existing supply down to the point that there would have been literally no inventory at stores on launch day. Or Apple may have been attempting to ensure that there were in fact retail lines, as the ease of Verizon iPhone 4 preorders clearly hurt Apple in the form of ignorant headlines such as “Verizon iPhone 4 flops as evidenced by short lines,” with the ‘flopping’ part ultimately turning out not to have been true after all. Regardless of Apple’s motivation for mixing online preorders this time, there simply must be iPhone 5 preorders allowed. After yesterday’s disaster, even some of Apple’s most eager customers will likely never be willing to show up for a launch day line again, meaning that they’ll stay home and order their iPhone 5 online once they’re allowed to. Might as well let them order it in advance.
Keep it simple
When the iPhone 4 launched, it came in three total configurations. The iPad 2 launched with eighteen options as a result of two colors, three network options, and three capacities. The confusing number of options turned an already doomed iPad 2 launch into an even more absurd experience, as employees desperately tried (and failed) to convince customers to go home with a Verizon iPad 2 after the AT&T iPad 2 had almost immediately sold out. It would have been much easier if there had simply been a single hybrid 3G iPad 2 model which worked on either AT&T or Verizon. By the time of the iPhone 5, Apple must seriously consider offering a single iPhone 5 model which works on both carriers. Otherwise, buying an iPhone 5 will become as absurdly confusing as buying an iPad 2.