Tonight at 10 PM, the iPhone Pro Max and Mini finally became available for pre-order. After waiting and waiting for the clock to strike ten, the moment I hit the refresh button, all I got was a black screen saying "Coming soon" — and ten minutes later, nothing had changed. I'm sure plenty of you had the same experience. Up until now I'd just vaguely thought, "Well, I guess they're getting things ready behind the scenes," but as it turns out — though you'd never guess from looking at it — this is actually a "503" error. A 503 error is what shows up when too many people are hitting a server at once and it can't keep up. If you open the Google Chrome console, sure enough, there's a 503 right there.
Whether you can connect to the store is pure luck!!
Whether the store page actually loads for you is, honestly, a matter of luck, so I can't really recommend any particular approach. But if you hit it at the same time from a bunch of different devices and browsers, or close and reopen the browser repeatedly, one of them might just get through. Also, even if you do get through, closing the browser even once can drop you right back to the black screen — so once you're in, do NOT close the browser. Carefully, very carefully…
If you absolutely have to get one on launch day…
In reality, about 30 minutes after pre-orders opened, the black screen stopped appearing — but the more popular the model, the further out the delivery dates pushed. If you absolutely have to have it on launch day, your only option seems to be hammering away the moment the clock hits the start time and not giving up until the store loads. By the way, for Apple Store in-store pickup, even an hour after pre-orders opened, there were still quite a few stores where you could pick it up that same day. With COVID still going on, shipping is preferable if you can swing it — but if you do head to a store, don't forget your mask and to get your temperature checked!
