AppleInsider: Windows Mobile hampered iPhone 3G sales. Say what?
Posted on 24 August 2008, at 2:00 pm, by Wayne Schulz
After having a month to ponder the somewhat shaky rollout of iPhone 3G, AppleInsider is out with a curious pronouncement. They cite sources at the Apple retail stores as saying that sales of iPhone 3G are being slowed by handhelds running Microsoft Windows Mobile/WinCE. There’s no report indicating whether the Windows Mobile/WinCE devices played into shortages at the AT&T corporate stores, whether the new requirement of 100% activation may have everything to do with the slow sales process or if the crashing of the iTunes/activation servers was caused by Windows Mobile/WinCE. The rather lengthy article slings a lot of mud goes into great detail about how the handheld devices take forever to boot, etc. I’ve never worked retail – but don’t all retail folks hate their point-of-sale systems? You may recall that James Kendrick over at JKOnTheRun was one of the first to note the irony of Apples handheld point-of-sale terminals running on Windows CE – in his post iPhone 3G – brought to you by Microsoft.
AppleInsider – iPhone 3G sales hampered by Windows Mobile
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August 24th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
It’s amazing to me how much POS systems suck now. My Dad has a Windows based one at work and he and several others figured out how to get to ANY website on the POS. Um…..WHY does your POS system need any acess to the web at all?? Oh and in case you want to know….it’s JCPenny’s who has this shite idea running on their POS system.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Actually, I’m going to be a little petty here and point out that James wasn’t even close to first to point out the WinMo/Apple irony of the POS terminals. I brought it up in a Symbol MC50 review nearly 2 years ago on another site. The sad thing about the web is that we forget things as quickly as they’re posted!
Apple’s used these since they first opened their stores. The real question is how long before they convert to iPod Touch or iPhone based terminals. I’m not sure what Appleinsider was trying to say since their story rambled all over, but you certainly cant blame WinMo for the iPhone 3G problems!
August 24th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Chris…..yeah I agree with that. I have NEVER had an issue checking out in the Apple Store…..EVER. With that said, why must they use iPod Touch or iPhone’s? They could just….GASP….use a Mac???
August 24th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
They do use Macs as their primary POS terminals/cash registers. The PPC devices are just their walk-around devices.