Well, something had to go wrong. The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone got pretty good reviews. The lines were long. AT&T's (NYSE: T) CEO gave an interview about how great the whole thing was.

But, customers who bought the phone are finding that it takes some time to activate the AT&T service that operates the phone. And, they are angry. The time lag for setting up the phone so it actually works affects both current AT&T customers and people moving their service from other companies, like Sprint (NYSE: S).

AT&T and Apple may be trading comments about which company is to blame. As one user posted: "Same here (in NYC), it's been about 10 hours for me. AT&T said (after talking to 4 agents) that it's Apple's job to activate the phone not theirs," added user PeteTech.

No product launch is perfect, and it's safe to assume that, once the initial flood of iPhone buyers has passed, getting the handsets to work will not take so long.

Maybe you can get better activation time if you offer to pay another $500 in addition to the $500 for the phone.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.