There is no other word I can think of to describe the disaster that was the iPhone 4 preorder process. Whether the order was initiated through AT&T or Apple, the whole process failed miserably for most people. Even those who successfully ordered an iPhone 4 required multiple attempts, often spending hours before the attempt went through.

Apple knew this would be popular. AT&T knew this would be popular. This happens every year. I’m not sure who is at fault here – AT&T apparently bears the brunt of the blame given the pattern of failures, but Apple should have at least posted some acknowledgement that the system was having problems.

I hope AT&T gets this problem fixed before it’s time to activate these things – another source of perennial frustration.

But I shouldn’t complain…