“We’ve been working on this for a very long time. We expect unprecedented demand, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before. We feel good about being able to handle it.”

– John Stratton, Verizon Wireless COO.

AT&T must be snickering into its cornflakes this morning (okay, perhaps it’s more of a hollow chuckle). Verizon began taking pre-orders for the forthcoming CDMA iPhone this morning and is suffering some of the same issues for which AT&T has been taken to task in the past (though AT&T’s problems were substantially more severe).

I received multiple reports from eager buyers whose purchase attempts were thwarted by infuriatingly slow page loads and/or error messages. Twitter is full of similar notes. This despite Verizon’s claim that the iPhone’s launch on its network would go flawlessly. “We are not going to have any flaws on the execution of the iPhone launch,” Fran Shammo, president and CEO of Verizon’s telecom and business unit, said ealier this year. “We’ve been preparing the network for the last year anticipating the launch of the iPhone.”

Well, perhaps a few flaws, as Verizon Wireless conceded this morning. Still, nowhere near as bad as the ones that troubled AT&T, which had to issue a formal apology.

“We have been processing orders all morning and most customers are not experiencing problems,” spokesperson Brenda Raney told me. “On balance this has been a smooth availability launch. In instances where customers get an error message, they tend to be specific to that individual versus a system wide issue. For example, if customers on a Family SharePlan log in and use a mobile number other than the one belonging to the primary account holder, they will get an error message. We are working to address that now.”

Of course, “on balance” doesn’t help if you are the one who has waited for years for the Verizon iPhone and find yourself unable to order one.

PREVIOUSLY:

• AT&T Now Dropping iPhone Calls and iPhone 4 Pre-Orders
• Apple: Sorry We Sold So Many iPhone 4s Yesterday
• Time to Cut AT&T Some Slack, iPhone Users?

[Error Image Credit: Business Insider]

UPDATE: To be clear: iPad orders placed before today and given a “delivers on 4/3” designation will, obviously, still deliver on April 3. Orders placed beginning today, March 27, will not.

FURTHER READING:

Launch Day iPads Sold Out

iPad Available at “Most Best Buy Stores” This Saturday

Apple Grabs iPad Trademark From Fujitsu

Apple Now Accepting iPad App Submissions

Early Supplies of iPad Accessories Dwindling?

Initial iPad Demand Greater Than Initial iPhone Demand

iPad TV?

Apple’s Tablet: Read Different?

Rumored Apple Netbook Actually an E-book?

Coming Soon From Apple: Big Touch?

iTablet: Apple’s Killer App for Higher Ed

COMPLETE IPAD COVERAGE

The company’s Web site is once again accepting iPhone orders from potential customers living in Manhattan. I was just able to initiate two orders for the iPhone 3GS using New York city zip codes (click on image below to enlarge)–one in midtown (10016), the other in East Harlem (10029).

This not 24 hours after company representatives claimed that AT&T (T) wasn’t selling iPhones online to New Yorkers because of “online fraudulent activity” or because AT&T “periodically chooses to modify [its] promotions and distribution channels” or some combination of the two.

That AT&T reversed course so quickly and without comment suggests this entire incident may have been one of those middle-of-the-org-chart missteps that went unnoticed by upper management until it blew up in the media.

What’s perhaps most astonishing about the episode is how willing people were to buy into the idea, put forth by Consumerist, that AT&T had actually stopped selling the iPhone online in Manhattan because of data congestion issues. That such an idea is even plausible to people is truly a sad comment on the quality of AT&T’s network in the city.

I’ve asked AT&T for comment and will update here if the company can break away from the periodic modification of its promotions and distribution channels long enough to give me one.

It’s interesting, then, to learn that Apple is delaying shipment of both its 27-inch iMac models by two weeks. That seems an ill-timed postponement, one that will likely push many orders past the Christmas holiday.

Reached for comment, Apple (AAPL) offered little in the way of explanation: “The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible,” a company spokesperson told me. “We apologize for any inconvenience or delay in delivery this may cause our customers.” He did not address issues with the machine’s display or reports that they might be responsible for the two-week shipping delay.

So it’s not entirely clear what’s going on here. It could be that Apple is delaying shipment of the 27-inch machines until it resolves display issues. Or it could also be that demand for the machine is so great, Apple simply can’t keep up with it. If the former, this is a potential blow to the company, which could see holiday sales adversely affected. If the latter, Apple may be headed for another blowout quarter. We won’t know the answer until Apple tells us or until it next reports quarterly earnings.

The economy has started a “gradual recovery,” Chambers said Wednesday during a meeting with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors, echoing optimism he expressed when discussing Cisco’s fourth-quarter results in August. Chambers said that he bases his assessment of the economy on several factors, including the stock market, conversations with customers and the rate at which Cisco (CSCO) receives orders. Based on these criteria, he believes that the U.S. is coming out of the recession. He added that Asia seems to be picking up as well, but that he expects Europe to lag behind.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

“According to reliable information, Apple will not follow the current market trend (by producing netbooks with screens about 10.2 or 10.1 inches in diagonal length.) Instead, Apple will produce screens with about 9.7 inches in diagonal length. Touch screen will be installed. Wintek will be the main manufacturer of the touch screen.”

Beyond screen size, there are no other specifications mentioned in the report. But it does include a price: $800. Which is $300 more than the $500-piece-of-junk price point Apple CEO Steve Jobs cited when he dismissed netbooks last October. “There are some customers which we chose not to serve,” Jobs said at the time. “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that.”

But will it allow Apple to ship an $800 one? Perhaps something with a P.A. Semi chip? Something that runs App Store apps and offers a sort of middle ground between the iPod touch and the MacBook?

UPDATE: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster just weighed on these rumors in a research note. His thoughts, below:

On 7/13 Asian media reports suggested Apple is planning a tablet/netbook in Oct-09. Last week we spoke with a Taiwanese component supplier and continue to believe that Apple will launch a tablet, not a netbook, by early CY10. … We expect [it] to be a touchscreen device in the $500-$700 range (between the iPod Touch and MacBook).

[Image Credit: Adam Benton]

For Telefonica, which, through O2 and Movistar, is already the exclusive carrier of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in the U.K. and Spain, the deal is another coup. As Mathew Key, chairman of Telefónica Europe, noted in a gloating press release, “Telefónica is fast becoming the home of the smartphone.”

And for Palm (PALM), well, it’s another big step on the road to recovery. As CEO Jon Rubinstein said earlier this year, “We’ve been fighting the battle with basically both hands tied behind our back for the past year and half. Now we’re getting on the playing field, and we’re going to be extremely competitive. But it’s the beginning.”

While Comcast (CMCSA) had forecast a slowing of subscriber growth in its second quarter, the decline it’s now seeing is far worse than expected. “It is across all units,” said Roberts. We’re really not seeing a surging of disconnects. We’re just not seeing a surging of orders.”

Is that entirely econalypse-related? Or might it be due to competitive pressure from telcos? Roberts conceded that the market is an “intensely competitive one, but said Comcast has really just been dragged down by the souring economy. “I think there’s a general slowing of consumer expectations….” he said. “There are fewer opportunities to sell things.”

And at this point, the company clearly has to do something. Its last financials were grotesque and the ones to come promise to be little different. The “transformation” Sony began four years ago is still a work in progress, arguably one that’s been stalled for some time now. Once an electronics powerhouse, Sony (SNE) is now a laggard in many of the markets it once dominated: videogame consoles, digital music players and TVs. “The prices of digital home appliances have been declining by 15% to 20% every year lately,” said Sony spokesperson Mami Imada. “Unless we cut costs we cannot hope to survive the price competition.”