Activating an Apple iPhone and downloading apps from the App Store could take some time today

"And so this is Christmas," sang the late John Lennon in his 1971 holiday tune Happy Xmas (War is over). Ok, Yoko sang too. Anyway, the point is that today is December 25th and around the world people are unwrapping gifts. Some of these will be new smartphones, and if history repeats itself, many will be Apple iPhone models. According to Forbes, the handset gifted the most during the week before Christmas last year was the iPhone, which was responsible for 44% of  activations during that time period. Samsung and Huawei were second and third with 26% and 5% of activations, respectively.

Despite the anecdotal evidence of a slowdown in iPhone sales this year, most analysts expect Apple and Samsung to repeat as 1-2 in smartphone activations during the 2018 holiday season. And most still expect enough iPhones to be unwrapped today to swamp Apple's servers. If you are having trouble trying to activate a newly received iPhone, it might make you feel better to know that on past holiday seasons, the same thing occurred. But you might also want to peruse Apple's support page that deals with such matters.

Besides the sluggishness in activating a new unit, iPhone users will also have to be patient when it comes to App Store downloads. More iPhones being gifted means more apps being installed. And those who already own an newer iPhone model might have unwrapped App Store gift cards this morning and are dying to download some hot games.

We don't want to be the Grinch, but there is something else that iPhone users might have to deal with besides Apple's busy servers. If you just received an iPhone for Christmas, do not update the device to iOS 12.1.2. Otherwise, you might find yourself unable to receive cellular data. We wouldn't be surprised to see Apple release iOS 12.1.3 later this week to exterminate this (hum)bug.