Apple Store Crashes As iPhone 6 Goes On Sale

Apple's website collapsed under increased traffic last night after eager customers waited until midnight to order the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Users logging on to the online Apple Store at midnight as the iPhones went on sale reported slow load times, and a lengthy delay in the devices becoming available.

Some service appears to have been restored after about 30 minutes. But this morning, the store was down for some users. Its availability appears to be intermittent.

Some customers reported that the iPhone was available on carrier websites and the Apple Store app, but not the desktop site. There were reports that the iPhone 6 had sold out through some carriers.

The delays in the iPhone 6 becoming available in the online store frustrated many customers, as they had waited until the early hours of the morning to order the new phone.

The non-functional online store is the third glitch in a row to plague the launch of iPhone 6. At the launch event, the livestream failed for 25 minutes, leaving viewers staring at a fuzzy test-card and listening to commentary in Chinese. Then Apple delayed the iPhone 6 launch in China after failing to get regulatory approval on time (or, as conspiracy theorists would have it, the company wanted to punish its wireless carrier partners for leaking pictures of the new phones on their web sites prior to the launch).