After having monitored blogs and news of the iPhone 3G launch all morning and afternoon, the general feeling I get is that the launch of the iPhone 3G could be considered nothing less than a disaster. Blame Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), blame AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) -- but if you were brave enough to "have to have" an iPhone 3G on launch day, you may have a need for a stress ball by now.

It appears that Apple's integration with AT&T's activation system didn't fare so well on this day. Both companies should have known, like June of last year, that it would be a super-busy day for the iPhone universe. In what seems like a commonplace event on large product launches, activation servers crashed, software updates failed (even for the older iPhone owners who wanted to updated to the newer software) and scores of customers were left without working iPhones as the in-store activation process was completely fubar'ed by both companies.

For Apple to have such an awesome piece of hardware and software in the iPhone 3G, working with an aging and piecemeal telecom carrier was unfortunately a necessity. After all, Apple does not own a national wireless network with high-speed data capability. But the customer process failed miserably today -- something that zealous and exuberant iPhone 3G buyers should not forget. Did you really, really need that iPhone 3G today? If your answer is yes (yeah, right), you should have expected a nightmare. For many of you, that was delivered rather nicely. Hope you kept up with your pulse, eh?