Apple promised customers the ability to preorder the new iPhone 4S at 12:01AM Pacific Time on Friday — but the store blew right past that deadline and is still showing a “Back Soon” sign. The Apple Store App is “Back Soon” also.
Verizon’s website is accepting preorders fine, according to a stream of happy tweets on Twitter. But there’s no sign of a pre-order button on AT&T’s website.
iPhone 4S order fail.
Who’s off to bed soon?
UPDATE: The online Apple Store went live for preorders at about 12.40. However, there were lots of complaints of timeouts and other problems. Some customers reported success using the Apple Store App.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
300 responses to “Apple’s Online Store Blows Past iPhone 4S Pre-Order Deadline [Updated]”
off to bed? I’m off to Verizon soon!
Not this guy…stayed up this late as it is, might as well keep on truckin’
Getting the sticky-note too. I thought Apple was prepared for this?
I will not rest till I have a pre ordered iPhone ….. thats what Steve would have wanted !! :P
this is so stupid, how the hell can they let it go half an hour past the deadline at this time of night
Does anyone know how to order AppleCare+ on Verizon’s website??? It’s not there, but their Twitter account says supposedly it’s under the accessories section.
Sprint’s website is choking too!
not me. i’m too busy hitting REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH
pissed off! i’ve been trying online and over the phone for apple & sprint for 30 min now, wtf? they’re a damn COMPUTER company for godsakes, they had to know the volume of ppl that would go to the site & should b ready 4 it!
I’ve got 30 more minutes left in me. I think?
obviously they had no idea there would be this much demand and were caught completely unprepared… ;0)
You’d think they’d want to reassure everyone that Apple can cope without Steve and put it on when they said they would
The Sprint site is not working at the moment.
smooth sailing on the verizon site … kinda confirms for me my decision to eat the ETF and kick AT&T to the curb.
I will not sleep until I get the iPhone 4s
I will not sleep until I get the iPhone 4s
It wouldn’t be a true Apple launch if it wasn’t extremely inconvenient for the majority of their customers.
i will not stop till i get my iPhone 4s
Arrrgh! I have to get up at 4:30!
Can you really blame demand? People want this phone to remember Steve by. It has connotative meaning!
Verizon’s site won’t let you change the shipping address from the billing address. You can change the billing address in your profile, but you can’t change the name. Awesome. Because I really want to send a package to my office with my mother’s name on it. Fail.
It’s 5:36PM in Australia. Pre-order will be in normal awake time!
There is no better way to honor Steve than to keep waiting to pre-order this bad boy.
I just ordered mine from the Canadian Telus store. Happy:)
No idea.. thats the issue I’m having and why I’m waiting for apple to come up… i thought verizon was perfect, until i hit the accessory screen
squaretrade is a much better choice – use promo code “THIRTY30” & it includes 2 years of EVERYTHING coverage including water & screen :)
I actually got in at about 12:04 to at&t and was able to preorder, but the minute i hit it, it timed out. Go figure….
come on apple, get your sh*t together. This is a legendary phone, especially since theres no steve. hurry up!
Finger on the F5 key. ‘Will be back soon’ image burnt-in on my retina!!!!
From the east coast.
Siri open the Apple Store now.
Waited for 5 minutes on the Apple site. Saw the tweet from @cultofmac about Verizon and AT&T sites working. Went right to the site, within 2 minutes, I got the order through. 2 minutes later, got the email. White iPhone 4S!!!!!!!
I’m staying on….I really want this even more…
what a let down!!!!!!!!
I was about to complete my order through Sprint and their store went down. DAMNIT!
Yeah. My Grandmother pays for my phone service and I would like to change the billing and shipping address.
iPhone 4S = iPhone 4-Steve
40 minutes past deadline now, come on Apple/Att
Stores back up!!!
ok i’m on…but i get as far as the add a line on ATT…jeez
UK Store came online and ordered
Apple is not linking with AT&T when ordering it!!!!!!!
Got into the Apple Store only to be denied because I am not a current Sprint customer. FAIL
it isn’t working i can’t click on anything
ATT&T sucks! Been at it for 44 minutes and no luck. I can’t stand that Verizon keeps kicking their buts when it comes to customer services.
whew! got my AT&T order in on the apple store and should be all set. Good luck to the rest of the folks out there.
it won’t let me go past the att sign up screen
Can’t get past the page where I am eligble for the upgrade! DANG AT&T!!!
I’m off to bed right now. I’m going to wait in line Thursday morning ^-^
I got on and got up to select the data plan and it keeps refreshing the same page…now it won’t let me passed the add line part.
same here. page just keeps refreshing, can’t input any data!
ok i’m in further! at the ATT screen…getting account info!
same
FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shit…do i switch from unlimited to 4g with tethering…anyone??
stuck @
Are you a new or existing AT&T wireless customer?
never ordered online iPhone before but this is painful
Don’t give up if you are an AT&T customer. Keep hitting it and you will get through.
apparently Iphone 4S does not support 4G….
On Apple’s site I can now add it to the cart, but can’t get past telling it I am an existing AT&T customer. WTF. I even tried new customer and it just goes back to the same page after hitting continue!
Seems to be a glitch connecting to the AT&T servers. Keep trying.
Same here, can’t past new/Existing customer
same here…
This shit is all at&t’s fucking fault…. always, always fucking shit up
can’t get past selecting a data plan.
keep the faith guys. i keep refreshing and i’m almost checked out
Wow believe it or not…ordering last years iPhone was not this painful.
This happened to me too… i got to the ‘cart’ section and didn’t see ANY mention of AppleCare+. I didn’t submit yet, simply cuz I don’t want to screw myself over and not be able to get AC+.
Success!? Completed reservation via Apple website. Hung on each screen. Apple is going to email me “when it’s time to complete your order.” No payment, etc. tonight. Cheers.
I can’t add AppleCare+ to my cart on Apple’s website either. What the heck!!
Got my iPhone reserved!
won’t even let me select black or white….anyone know I’m stuck this early in the process?
Woohoo! Did manage to order a black 64Gb 4S! What made it fun was Shaw Cable dropping the internet connection midway through the process, but the iPhone 4 saved me…
Got on apple site, ordered to replace existing line, gave me an order number, but will email to confirm eligibility, voice and data plans!! I’m already eligible, huh! Said to check back later with my order number!
Your request couldn’t be processed.We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later.
i reserved mine as well. java hangs here and there, you just have to wait it out. max wait on single screen was about mins. whole thing took about 12 mins to complete
keep clicking….
its so much fun to get to the data plan and during the processing animation, get kicked back and have to start over. twice
Got it from AT&T; it was faster than apple.com. It was way slow. Off to bed…crap just noticed I have to be in surgery in 3.5 hours.
just happened to me too : /
he means 4gb…
I have Unlimited Data grandfathered with AT&T but its forcing me to remove my unlimited data plan when i keep trying to upgrade with AT&T what should i do ? please guys i want my unlimited dataa
do you let the processing page do its thing? or do you try refreshing?
at+t is up!
AT&T’s site seems to be worker really well. If you’re an AT&T customer that is.
Will Apple hand me a new iPhone over the counter when I tell them I have SquareTrade, not AppleCare?
Unlimited use to be nice to have. Now if you go past whatever they call data hogging (probably over 2gb) they’ll slow you down so it’s not gonna be much of a loss personally.
AT&T Website is open for pre-order…worked well!
Placed order through Apple Canada. Took about 2 minutes total. I wasn’t getting anywhere with my laptop so I tried with my iPad and the process was as smooth as silk. I simply chose the co our, then the storage and placed the order. Email confirmation came through about 5 minutes later!!
Pay cash. It’s far cheaper in the long run.
Keeps accessing at&t account then tells me the same thing…Your request couldn’t be processed.
We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later.
yea except for college kids on their parents plans and att wont ship to any address other than the account and credit card billing address. so stupid
Mixed success at Apple.com. I think I got one pre-order in for my wife’s phone. I never got a confirmation, but when I tried again, it said I already had an order. Now, I’m trying to preorder my phone and so far it seems to be timing out at various stages. I hope I don’t preorder too many. :-)
Try a different browser.
Use the AT@T site. I also have unlimited plan and it said my current plan wasn’t compatible. Then I was offered a choice of plans. The first one was 4S unlimited data for $30 per month.
how would that work since im trying to pre order it now i dont wanna go wait in line
Apples site and phone line was very misleading and abandoned me in the middle multiple times. Very disappointed. However at&t was quick and painless! only complaint though was they didn’t let me change my e-mail address, they had a pre-existing one, and it’s old. I tried erasing it to replace it with my new one but wouldn’t budge. oh well. Good Luck!
Success!!! Went with AT&T and had no problems. The whole process took about 2 minutes.
I usually go over 2gb .. so paying 10$ more would suck everytime
att is not letting me choose the 4s when i go to upgrade. anyone else have this issue. i only see the 4 and the 3GS
Place your order on AT&T.com. Trying to do it on Apple is a waste of time. I went through 6 times before I gave up.
Finally got through on AT&T’s site. Was able to upgrade the wife’s and my phone. Process only took and hour and 20 minutes… woohoo
apple site is up and running
LMFAO thanks i was so hesitant to just even click continue and then i did see that unlimited data plan haha
me too
Did anyone notice it didn’t give you a choice between the black or white phone?
yup! FINALLY
Apple site is sucking, AT&T customers use their site, i did got mine with NO TROUBLE
Same thing here.
AT&T Buisness isnt working at all, maybe the regular site is up but buisness customers cannot access anything
if you click it right of the front wireless page it doesnt ask make sure u do it manually
try a new browser. i opened up safari and it worked.
Agreed!
ATT has it now and it is working. Upgraded both of our phones. :-)
I meant full price. Order a phone from apples website and just drop your at&t sim in it when it shows up.
ATT checkout process was very smooth :D
upgraded using att website!
has ANYONE got thru with zero issues on apple.com
give me a BREAK
tried using att, said the grandfathered in unlimited data plan is not eligible for the 4s. wtf
Geting timeouts after 90 minutes at Apple site. Now AT&T says:
There was a problem with your request.P1234: We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to support this request online. Please contact Premier Support at 1-866-499-8008 Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for assistance with your request. Please reference Error P1234 if you speak to a representative about this error.
yeah so we can call “premier support” starting at 9am tomorrow, not very premier to me
I tried the apple store. Got as far as choosing if i wanted a family pack and it froze like 5 times. went to AT&T and got 2 in about 5 minutes!
Been trying for over an hour. Still getting errors. Complete crap. How can it be this bad after now 5 releases.
Im wondering if that is why I am having so many problems on the apple site
Sprint is working and I got 2…. Current customer. Apple site failed numerous times so I dont know what the deal is… i can go back to sleep here on the east cost.
Sprints orders status is kinda funny:
“Status:Thanks
for pre-ordering. A shiny new iPhone is waiting for you in our
warehouse. Excluding extreme circumstances, you will have your device
Friday, Oct. 14 or Saturday, Oct. 15. During the pre-order period, we
will send you a shipping email and tracking number. Your tracking number
may not be updated until Oct. 14. Questions? Visit sprint.com/preorder.”
Same for me — over and over
Just upgraded through ATT website, I too was grandfathered in the unlimited plan, but was able to choose the unlimited data plan for the 4s when checking out.
got this error like 15 times till now…There was a problem with your request.P1234: We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to support this request online. Please contact Premier Support at 1-866-499-8008 Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for assistance with your request. Please reference Error P1234 if you speak to a representative about this error.
That’s what I thought srf4490 at first but just pick data unlimited anyway and u will get iPhone 4s data unlimited which is different then iPhone 3GS unlimited. Apple needs to get on the ball, AT&T was way easier once they put the pre order option up
how so? my unlimited data plan remained intact. don’t let the “removed feature” fool u. keep hit “continue” and u will see your unlimited data plan on the next page.
i get the same thing! FML
I am getting my ATT account is locked
Finally had luck using the iPhone app after 1 hour and 40 minutes.
FINALLY got through via the phone app, kept getting a “bad gateway” error on it until I swapped off the 3G and onto my Wi-Fi. WOOT ^_^
Tried for over an hour with the apple site…nothing. Went to the ATT site, upgraded, took 2 minutes. Had been granfathered in the unlimited data plan, durring the upgrade process, said it was no longer avail. But was able to choose the unlimited data plan for the 4s upon check out.
actually click ok. after you say ok you get the option to add the unlimited back.
got all the way to place order on iPhone app, but it just sits there on processing…has been about 15 minutes now
Apple store now says unable to take iPhone orders
AT&T tells me to call Premier services…Apple says they’re unable to take orders o.O
completed on AT&T…quite easy. Apple sucked!!!! Steve Jobs would have been disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
finally got through on the iPhone apple store app. Desktop browser kept timing out. Kept getting the BS P1234 error on ATT’s website. Keep the faith. Meanwhile, I’m going to bed…
apple site is no longer accepting orders, att does not offer the 4s only the 4 and 3gs, hope you guys who ordered thru them did not end up with the old 4 or 3gs
false! dont do it via your account. go here http://www.att.com/#fbid=e7yAN…
att site is now down also
dont do it via your account. go here http://www.att.com/#fbid=e7yAN…
Sprint was a disaster as well and NO luv for long-time, once gold premiere customers in terms of pre-orders. Finally prevailed after countless attempts and 1hr 40mins @ Sprint.com.
dont do it via your account. go to the main “shop” page of att.
Premier site and ATT number not working – just on hold for ever.
Went through hoops and loops but finally got my pre-order with Sprint.
4 AM here in Oklahoma and my upgrade finally went thru with att website!!!! i’m out!
finally placed order thru att.com, had to enter thru the shop button. once in it was an easy process
finally got my order in via att.com, had to use the shop button to get in, once you get in the process was quite easy, for current customers you can upgrade by going thru the shop button too.
thanks! i did that and finally got my upgrade. woot!
Premier is working now. Just completed my preorder.
By 4:45 central time I was able to order phones from Apple for my wife and myself. Other than my eyes burning from lack of sleep, I’m happy.
got straight in through verizon’s site and was back in bed by 12:06.
I don’t care about the software or the hardware of iPhone 4S. I will buy it simply because it’s “iPhone 4 Steve” and I believe this is the last iPhone which its design was personally approved by Steve Jobs himself. It’s gonna be classic. :)