ABSTRACT
It doesn’t seem to happen often, but even Apple® stumbles from time to time. When the virtual doors opened for the much anticipated launch of Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 7, on September 18, 2013, the systems in Cupertino were completely unprepared for the volume of customer demand. iPhone® and iPad® devices around the world were locked in limbo, unable to operate, answer calls, or send texts and tweets. Hours later, in many cases, a message appeared on the user’s screen:
That was the message that appeared on Barry’s iPad after about 3 hours into the upgrade process. Others were stuck in the install as well, forcing some users to restore devices to factory settings. The circumstances were dire enough that Apple issued an internal highpriority alert to staffers, calling “all hands on deck” to minimize the overall impact of the problem.1
