The media (social and real) is abuzz with how Apple botched the launch of the 3G iPhone last Friday. Yes, they could have done it a whole lot better but I don’t think it is going to make much of a dent on the how many of these phones Apple will sell.
Seth Godin in his blog writes about the concept of scarcity that is written around this misstep by Apple and AT&T. It is a very fascinating read and has a lot of lessons for product managers in how creating a product experience and how treating your higher spend customers differently is crucial to eventual success of a product. Apple is likely to get away with this misstep because their product truly has a great product experience and they have the world beating to their door and hence willing to give them a longer leash.
Software Product Manager by Gopal Shenoy 
Yes, it did sell a lot and will continue to sell a lot, but I don’t think this is the media buzz that Apple and AT&T wanted.
It still sold a few million units in the space of three days. If that’s a debacle, I’d like to see what a non-debacle looks like.