Hasta La Gadget!

Apple must be sick of constantly apologizing for the bad behaviour of its iPhone business partner AT&T. Time after time it messes up — no tethering or MMS on the 3GS launch day, a botched 3G launch a year ago — and Apple has to mop up after it. If this were a family, AT&T would be the drunken uncle who always throws up at wedding receptions, and Apple would be the long suffering brother who always has to drive him home.

This time, Apple is offering a $30 iTunes credit for 3GS buyers who couldn’t activate their new phones. New customers hooking their iPhones up to iTunes were seeing a message saying there could be a wait of up to 48 hours before activation — hardly what you want when you were excited enough to buy the phone on its first day. If you were one of the unlucky ones, keep an eye on your inbox for this mail:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you’ll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

Of course, Apple isn’t completely innocent. AT&T may have added a couple of days to the wait times for the iPhone, but remember MobileMe? That took Apple months to get right, and it’s still little more than Geocities mixed with a buggy sync-engine.

Apple Stuck Apologizing For AT&T Yet Again With A $30 iTunes Credit [Tech Crunch]

Apple Offers $30 iTunes Store Credit for Activation Delays [MacRumors]