As they're the most incompetent people in the world?
The main issue was due to not being able to do credit checks, meaning if you subsequently fail it you've effectively got a free iphone. However as a "select executive customer" who has regularly spent over £100/£150 a month with o2 over the past few years, i actually feel aggrieved by this. Still, if the shock that lots of people might have wanted to upgrade to this has worn off them by tomorrow, maybe they'll sort out their awful "gateway" upgrade system.
Still, this is o2 we're talking about here