Storm? Not even a cloud in the sky

I usually don't need, or want to be the first with a new technology 'toy.'  However, I did want to be among the first with the Blackberry Storm.  The Storm arrived in stores yesterday so I went to the Verizon store in Chevy Chase, Md about two hours after it opened.  Put my name on the list and started asking
questions.  It seems the store opened at 9:00 and so far only the first seven or eight customers had activated phones. The product roll-out rivals Apple's iPhone as one of the worst product roll-outs in the past few years.  Verizon did a fantastic job building hype and anticipation for the Storm. What they didn't do is match that effort with a comparable production or distribution effort and they appear to have failed to engineer an activation system/network that could support the demand.  The Verizon staff told us that the system had crashed at about 9:30 (nation-wide) and no one knew when it would be available again.  It wasn't slow, like Apple's system was, it was down and out.  To further frustrate customers, the store only received 20 phones.  Later, it received another 40 but the system still wasn't up and running when I checked in again at about 2:00.  Other stores reported receiving as few as 15 phones.  What were they thinking? There were at least 60 people in line when I was there and they had all stood there for two hours and were willing to keep waiting.  I don't know how long they waited.  I stopped by the store again this morning and the sales team told me they are completely sold out of phones (what?  you sold all 60 phones?  remarkable) and don't know when or if they will get any more.  I can order one and it is likely I will get it before Christmas. 

Don't you wonder who is making the decisions that lead up to a situation like this?  Granted, no one is losing their life because they can't get a Storm - but in tough economic times, shouldn't the company be smart enough to capitalize on an opportunity like this?  Hopefully we all can learn from their mistakes as we roll out our products and services.