My Experience with Pre-ordering the Apple IPhone 4

Apple's iPhone is the hottest cell phone on the market today. Sure, it has some stiff competition from the Droid, HTC, and so on, but the upcoming release of the iPhone 4 will help cement its place as a top mobile choice. It is possible to pre-order the iPhone 4 today from the online Apple Store, either the 16 GB version or the 32 GB version, with free shipping from the Apple Online Store. However, technical problems have plagued the system recently, potentially discouraging some from ordering it. Both Gizmodo and CNET , both super-popular tech review and news sites, recently discussed the issues customers have encountered when the pre-order system went live. Here is my experience with the online pre-order system for the Apple iPhone 4 as of recently.

Gizmodo reported the ATT and Apple websites were hit super-hard, as pre-orders skyrocketed once they started being accepted. CNET also discussed how Apple claimed to have sold 600,000 new phones on June 15, somewhat exhausting their supplies, thanks also to the huge number of customers submitting upgrade eligibility requests. For comparison, the iPhone 3GS sales were 10 times lower on its first day of pre-orders. New customers trying to order the iPhone 4 this time around got hit with network time-outs and errors, obviously very aggravating. Finally, AT&T responded by suspending iPhone 4 sales from their website, and people were greeted with a message on the AT&T website that "Pre-orders...had temporarily been suspended."

However, I was able to still find the iPhone 4 on the Online Apple Store and get through the order process for the most part.

Going through Apple instead of AT&T seemed like a very smooth process for me. I did not get hit with the time-outs or errors that many people were complaining about, and did not run into much lag between web pages. I went with a 16 GB iPhone 4 ($199), with unlimited text ($20), unlimited talking minutes ($69), 200MB for the data plan, and a lovely one-time activation fee of $36, adding up to a grand total of $104.99 a month, plus the $199 iPhone cost. No problems there, no lag or network errors.

However, my big complaint and problem was with the user information requirements. It seemed that there was no way to get around the annoying Social Security signup requirement. For people just working in the U.S. that aren't citizens, or for people (like me) who prefer not to give out their SS# unless absolutely needed (privacy breaches or identity theft, anyone?), this requirement is a problem. As a new user signing up for the AT&T service with a pre-ordered iPhone 4, this was a conundrum.

As it turns out, plenty of other people have complained about this, and some have even found claimed work-arounds to this Social Security requirement. The folks at The Unoffficial Apple Webblog (TUAW) suggest entering 999-99-9999 as a SS# (I'm not recommending this, it just worked for them), thus making the account fail the credit check and forcing the user to buy a pre-paid plan. I have no idea if this actually works for the new iPhone 4 signup, though. The iPhone is a really great cell phone, and the upcoming release of the iPhone 4 is definitely worth looking into. However, keep in mind the issues, errors and problems some people (like me) have encountered when pre-ordering it.

Erica Ogg, "Apple: 600,000 iPhone Preorders on first day" CNET.

Staff W, "Apple iPhone 4 Preordering is Total Disaster" Gizmodo