[Update: outage resolved] Since at least 2:17 PM Pacific Time today, the iTunes and App Stores appear to be dysfunctional for at least some users. The problem appears to be most severe in the northeastern US and in England, but there are scattered reports from a number of other countries, though not all users are affected. For those that are, however, upgrades and purchases are not able to go through. This also is having an impact on Apple's streaming services and the ability of users to log into their iTunes accounts.
Apple's main System Status Page has been updated as of 3:17PM PT , and a quick check of available
MacNN staff shows no current problems, though one staffer in western Canada experienced issues closer to the beginning of the projected outage time. Reports have been seen from Vancouver and Seattle, LA and San Francisco, and much of England (but not Scotland or Northern Ireland). Apple's just-updated page, having previously said that everything was fine during the first few hours, now says the problem began at around 11:30AM PT.
The page lists the App Store, the iBook Store, the iTunes Store, and the Mac App Store as "not working as expected for some users," or "may be unable to make purchases for some users." Apple's online services took a hit previously this month, just before the Worldwide Developers Conference, but that was seen as a likely upgrade to the infrastructure to accommodate possible new services and system improvements.
Update: According to Apple's status page, the outage officially lasted from around 11:30AM Pacific Time to approximately 5:30PM PT, making it the longest of the three outages reported thus far this month (though varying numbers of users, and generally a small percentage, were hit with the problems at any given time). No explanation for the problem has yet been given, but Apple tends to avoid commenting on outages unless they affect most or all users of a given service.
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