Apple offers iPhone activations via iTunes

Apple and AT&T today announced that iPhone users will be able to activate their new iPhones using Apple’s iTunes software running on a PC or Mac computer -- without having to wait in a store while their phone is activated. The company said that the iPhone takes only minutes "as iTunes guides the user through simple steps to choose their service plan, authorize their credit and activate their iPhone. Once iPhone is activated, users can then easily sync all of their phone numbers and other contact information, calendars, email accounts, web browser bookmarks, music, photos, podcasts, TV shows and movies just like they do when they sync their iPods with iTunes."

“Users will be able to activate their new iPhone in the comfort and privacy of their own home or office, without having to wait in a store while their phone is activated,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “There are tens of millions of people in the US who already know how to sync their iPods with iTunes, and syncing their new iPhone with iTunes works the same way.”

iPhone, Apple said, offers a "revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers." It combines three products into one small and lightweight handheld device—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the internet in your pocket "with best-ever applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and maps."

“iPhone’s user-driven activation is another example of how AT&T and Apple have partnered to bring innovative new features to our customers,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO, AT&T. “iPhone’s innovative activation and sync is just one example of how this is going to be a real industry game-changer.”

Filed under: Apple