The iPhone lines went dead.
A worldwide server crash turned the much-hyped debut of the new holy grail of gadgetry into a stunning embarrassment for Apple, as the thousands who stood in line for hours learned their beloved new iPhones could not be switched on.
“The buzz phrase they kept throwing at us was ‘Just be patient,’ ” said Tanya Lawrence, 28, of Brooklyn, who waited six hours only to learn she would not be able to activate the phone she bought.
“I was like, ‘Well, hello. I have already been patient. I have been patient in line for hours, I have been patient waiting for you to activate my phone, and I have been patient waiting for months for the phone to even come out. That’s a lot of patience.’ ”
The new phones, which run between $199 and $299, are cheaper and faster than the originals, which debuted a year ago. But this time, the company decided all phones had to be activated at an Apple or AT&T store, to hamper the sale of “unblocked” phones overseas.
Apple would not return calls for comment.
The iTunes server that controls the final step in the activation was completely overwhelmed as Apple Stores began opening on the West Coast, employees told The Post.
The company had to send customers home to activate their phones later, once everything was up and running.
“Only 250 people have actually been able to get phones,” an employee at the West 14th Street Apple Store said seven hours after the iPhone went on sale. “First, the server completely shut down. Now, it is moving so slowly, you would not believe – it’s torture.”
The servers were mostly restored by 4 p.m.
Coming out of the store with her iPhone, Maggie Wilson, called the experience “anticlimactic.”
“They were more concerned with getting iPhones in people’s hands than giving customers what they need,” she said. “It’s a cool phone, but if it doesn’t work, what’s the point?”
A smiling army of Apple employees handed out free water and umbrellas to soothe the restless throngs who started lining up Thursday.
But even their exuberance soon waned. For the first few hours, the staffers would applaud each customer who left the store with an iPhone, but by mid-afternoon there was little to clap about.
“I’m still a fan of Apple,” said Mark Sanabria, 26, who was told to try to activate his phone at home, after three hours of futile attempts. “Steve Jobs has a great product, but he doesn’t have good enough servers.”
Those who waited at AT&T stores were even less fortunate, as inventories emptied by late morning.
“Nobody from the store bothered to tell the hundred of us outside that we were wasting our time,” said Chuck Braman, 38, at the 61st Street AT&T store.
Additional reporting by Conn Corrigan and Matt Albucher
mkronfeld@nypost.com