Death, Taxes, and the New iPhone

Some people say that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. But I’d like to add a third: that people are going to go crazy for the next iPhone. It seems like every September the new iPhones are announced and then released.

Every September, people jump on the Apple website at 12:01 AM Pacific Time to order or make a reservation, or camp out in front of a store to get their iPhone on release day. And lately, especially with T-Mobile shaking up the mobile industry, September is a free for all of people changing carriers to get the best deal on the new iPhone. This isn’t any big revelation.

Except for the people at Sprint.

The title of Jacob Kastrenakes’ article in “The Verge,” says it all: “Sprint stores couldn't sell iPhones for hours because their computer network went down.” But that’s not all. The subhead went on to report “Activations were failing too.” This was especially bad news for Sprint because they were trying desperately to hold on to the subscribers they had, fend off the challenge from T-Mobile, and tear away subscribers from Verizon and AT&T. One article described it this way, “Sprint is trying to out-crazy T-Mobile on iPhone payment plans.” So Sprint’s $1 a month iPhone lease plan was going against T-Mobile’s $5 a month lease plan, and people liked Sprint’s plan. A lot!

In other words, Sprint was the dog that chased the car - and caught it. And it broke their network for three precious hours on their version of Black Friday.

DBI Software works with many of the top retailers in the world. They know - either because of wisdom or hard-acquired experience that if your database is sick, your organization is unhealthy, your customers are unhappy, and your reputation suffers. Our patented, award-winning IBM DB2 LUW performance optimization software empowers them to get the most from the systems they already have. They rely on us to make sure their systems are ready for the tsunami of sales they’re expecting. Other companies turn to us in times of crisis to get their database unfrozen because we can diagnose problems in about 15 seconds, and solve problems in two hours or less.

When you come up with a great product, or a great strategy, or a great sale, you must have a healthy database supporting it. 

What You Must Know

If your database is sick, your organization is unhealthy, your customers are unhappy, and your reputation suffers.