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In both New York and San Francisco, lines that had stretched for blocks outside Apple retail stores dissipated rapidly as cheering employees high-fived the first iPhone customers as they were ushered inside in bunches just after 6 p.m. local time. But at AT&T's stores, where lines were shorter, the pace of iPhone distribution was slower.
Video: iPhone out of the box
CNET.com's Brian Cooley pops the lid on the most anticipated tech gadget in years.
Hundreds of people had lined up as early as Monday to be among the first people to accompany Apple on its maiden voyage into the smart-phone market. The iPhone, a touch-screen smart phone capable of browsing the Internet, playing music and videos, and making phones calls, generated almost unprecedented coverage from both the technology and mainstream media during the six months between its introduction at Macworld and Friday evening.
Any concerns about supply, at least at Apple stores, were moot, and standing in line for a day or more proved as necessary as snow tires in Miami. Ninety minutes after Apple started ringing up sales of the iPhone at its 24-hour flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York, anyone could just walk into the store and pick up a device with a minimal wait. In San Francisco, security guards put away the ropes marking the iPhone line at 7:09 p.m. and starting letting in anyone off the street.
Video: First look at iPhone
CNET.com's Kent German and Donald Bell take their first tour of the device.
At 7:30 p.m. at San Francisco's 3rd and Market AT&T store, about 25 people were still lined up waiting to receive their iPhones. Two hours before the gadgets went on sale at a different AT&T store a few blocks away, a man who appeared to be a manager assured a customer that they had "a pretty healthy amount" in stock just as the store closed to prepare for the launch.
However, CNET Networks employee Morty Okin, who arrived at the 3rd and Market AT&T store at 5 p.m. to wait for an iPhone received the last 8GB model at 7 p.m. "After that, a crowd of people dispersed," said Okin, who is photo product manager for CNET Reviews.
Of course, it's way too early to say how well Apple's iPhone sales did Friday night, and potential buyers should check Apple's retail Web site, where they can figure out how many iPhones are in stock at local Apple stores. As of Friday evening, Apple was projecting that iPhones would be available at every U.S. location on Saturday.
Of course, consumers can also order directly from Apple on the Web site.
At New York City's Apple store on 5th Avenue, the tourist-heavy underground retailer with a giant glass cube for an entryway, the scene could only be compared to a massive but well-organized sporting event. The press and spectators were a mob scene, but iPhone hopefuls were kept in a neat single-file line and could only enter and exit the store through a gauntlet of cheering Apple employees. A similar crush of cameras could be found on Stockton Street outside the San Francisco Apple store.
That was also the case at the Apple store in Arlington, Va., as earlier reported. The final seconds to launch brought a chanted countdown from the front of the line and sporting event-like cheers of "i-Phone! i-Phone!"
Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a brief appearance at the company's store in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., interacting with customers and generally overseeing one of the most important launches in the company's history.
The first people in line for the iPhone beamed as they were received inside the Apple stores like rock stars taking the stage. Apple retail employees had set up several demonstration models of the iPhone on white tables through the store, but these customers--some of whom waited for days--didn't need to take a test drive.
Within a few minutes of the doors' reopening in Arlington, a silver-haired man named Stephen Easley--who did, in fact, set up camp outside the store at around 10 p.m. Thursday to be the first in line--emerged to cheers with a pair of iPhones nestled in special black shopping bags, which he displayed for photographers. In San Francisco, Jerry Taylor held his iPhone high as he exited the store, apparently not having received the offers he had sought for his spot in line.
People's reasons for wanting an iPhone varied. A San Francisco resident who was first in line at the Fremont and Market AT&T store said she was dazzled by "the combination of all these things, there's so much it can do." The woman, who said she was slightly embarrassed to be first in line and therefore didn't want to be named, had never owned a smart phone before and therefore wasn't as concerned about potential flaws--such as the slow EDGE network or the touch-screen keypad that bedeviled some of the early reviewers.
But several others, including Taylor, were hoping to make a quick buck off the popularity of the iPhone. Apple was allowing customers at its stores to purchase two iPhones, while AT&T was only selling one iPhone per person at its stores.
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iPhone .
First would like to report that the keyboard does
work in a horizontal position . The spell checking (type checking
) is way cool. To use the keyboard horizontally you need to be
viewing in that position. The KB will appear and stay in that
orientation until you are done.
best. Later.
They made 3 million phones for this launch.
A sellout is not good for Apple, sales are.
The phone rocks. The market will respond.
You will see.
grammar? Why don't you just google 'apostrophe?' Purdue.edu
has a nice grammar section.
Oh, I get it. You think you already know grammar and the writer
was wrong! Well, I hate to disappoint you, but while the use may
be regarded as inelegant, it's a usage that is structurally correct
and rather common.
In this story, "doors' reopening" means "the reopening of the
doors" The writer made the "doors" possessive of the
"reopening" in order to save couple words:
Examples of this sort of construction:
leader of the group >> the group's leader
fans of Janis >> Janis' fans
Or, maybe you asked because you thought it should have been
"doors's reopening" or door's reopening." If that's the case then
you really are grammar-challenged and need professional help.
JPL
This total crap most likely incited by frustrated UMTS-providers who see another missed opportuninty for selling their services: At speeds allowed by EDGE of up to 384kbit/sec, for most sites the iPhone will not be limited by "the last mile" but by servers and all the routing in between, at least that is my conclusion after unsing a 10Mbit/sec DSL connection for more than a year now.
GSM/EDGE is mature, cheap, low on power, and available virtually EVERYWHERE. UMTS is expensive, powerhogging, bedeviled by horribly expensive data-roaming agreements, and consistantly available in major cities at best.
Though shalt nor complain about your cars maximum speed of 120mph, when you live in a country with a 75mph speed limit ;-)
Have fun while surfing, and find out what the real limitations of the device are.
PJMS
www.mp4-converter.net/zune-converter/
Sorry, until it activates, you're stuck with a brick. But it's a shiny brick.
If you choose to drop the AT&T service, you can do so, but then you have an even less useful brick.
mean all someone has to do is walk to the local AT&T or Apple
Store, and not pay the opportunist price.
Of the iPhone auctions I looked at, not one bidder.
I want an iPhone, but the AT&T store is closer and faster. If you're
an overseas buyer, and get one on eBay, how're you going to
activate it?
Iphone is even worst than the above description of its problems, set aside that you need at least a 12 inch screen to really use, benefit from, the Web, you need a KEYBOARD too - Doh!!!
And iPhone does not have an actual Keyboard, its Keyboard occupies same space as it's screen!
So who but a TOTAL brain washed LOSER would want to look at the web via a 3inch screen and then continuously flip to the Keyboard that takes the same space as this screen, to for example fill a form. It would literally take 20 times as long to fill the form and look at the content of a screen you need to look at to fill that form using iPhone compared to a laptop.
Iphone = more useless crap from Silicon Valley hyped by their Big media gang.
I mean Japanese give us Prius that gets 60 Miles per Gallon, French give us TGV that goes 300 Miles per Hour while seating in lap of luxury from city center to city center and what do we get from USA (Silicon Valley), useless Hypes such as iPhone, 2nd life, etc. etc., nothing useful or new.
BTW, there have been products such as iPhone available for years now, such as SideKick from DT and NK 9000 from Nokia, they all failed because who but a bunch of losers would wand to look at the web via a 3 to 4 inch screen and then have no normal sized, or a handicapped, Keyboard to boot!
same comments that you made yesterday so that you don't have to
present an original "thought," if you can call it that. You must be
one of those "power users!"
When you can fit your 12-inch web-browsing laptop in your shirt
pocket, let us know. Until then, you might want to refrain from
further cutting and pasting of your brilliant commentary.
What's that Mr. T? .... Yea, so do I.
"I pity the fool."
me great pleasure. It means they know Apple has another hit on
their hands and just can't stand it.
So keep the venom coming boys. It's better than holding it in 'till
you burst at the seams. Your impotent flailing is very entertaining.
same gripes over and over. I suppose if you say something
enough times some people will start to believe it. The things I've
read all over the place have been generally positive. No product
does everything right coming out of the gate. Support forums are
by nature full of problems. Most people really don't need much
help with things that work.
The joke's on you. :)
No doubt iPhone is way better and cool looking but its not worth the price of $500-700 for a cut down storage of a regular iPod and no 3G for so many data based applications.
Thanks for the product Apple but No thanks! I'll wait for the next verions just like you did for iPod.
possibly having sold 500,000 or more in one night.
....i bet they stay up all this week trying to fix your issues.
The iPhone blows my Blackberry Pearl out of the water.
I'll get $150 for my Pearl on ebay, will save $30 bucks per month
on my data plan with iPhone -- all of which means I'll break even in
just 11 months.
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html#
I thought it was stupid to have an iPod function with only 8GB of usable memory on board.
This is going to cost Apple thousands of initial sales.
My 80gb 5.5 ipod has 3077 songs, 74 videos and 499 photos. I have a Motorola RAZR V3 from Verizion and I adding an unlocked V3 for overseas use.
I guess the next logical step in the process would be to build an iPod that has the touch screen technology, a 3.5 inch screen, 100gb of HD storage and decent battery life.
Until then, I'll think I'll keep my wallet in my pocket.
Without AT&T, this really IS just a $600 boat anchor.
and Why At&T, Steve? was their bribe the biggest?
What was wrong with an unlocked phone? Do you really want to be a player in this market or what?
and drive the apple stocks up!
That is all I care!!!
apple...!!!
This would only apply to anyone that started as an Old AT&T Wireless customer before they got acquired by Cingular, and has kept their plan since being acquired by Cingular and now rebranded as the New AT&T.
I actually have an old Family Plan (3 lines) and wonder if the iPhone will accept my phone number and plan during activation.
hilarious it is to read comments on what a failure the iPhone is ...
while reading, and responding with one? S.S, Lindy, V.D, you
cannot win your arguments against this device. You can only
make yourselves look bad. Yes, we all know ATT has
serious issues, but that does not change the truth
about the iPhone . It is simply incredible
I'm more concerned about what sort of image this will have when someone who isn't tech-saavy buys the iPhone and then has trouble with AT&T. They won't really know to keep Apple and AT&T separate in their experience, only that they have a phone with an Apple logo and having service issues.
I don't think anyone here can honestly say with a straight face that AT&T doesn't have serious issues.
enjoyable interface.
For the other 90% of the world that DOES get it, the iPod, and now
the iPhone, are marvelous and enjoyable devices.
- The curse of the two-year deal....
-
by gwats1957
July 1, 2007 5:18 PM PDT
- If we've learned anything about the mobile phone business, it's that two year deals are about a year too long.
-
Reply to this comment
-
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- Happy to be an early adopter
-
by dansterpower
July 2, 2007 12:30 AM PDT
- Happy to own this phone.
-
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See all 150 Comments >>What's going to happen to these fools who are locked into these long-term deals about a year from now when Apple introduces an an improved device that is NOT locked to a single carrier and has vastly improved storage and better software?
I got burned a few years ago this way by Apple on a LCD monitor. The product was first rate and I'm still using it because I've got $2500 tied up in it, not because it's state of the art anymore.
Apple's deal with AT&T is for THIS phone only. There is no guarantee this deal would be linked to future versions of the iPhone and if I read my Steve Jobs correctly, that's just the way he wants it.
My advice? NEVER, EVER be the early adopter! products evolve, prices drop, demand shifts, and technology advances. Do you honestly think the iPhone will be THIS product in 12 months?
This is the playstation 2 all over again. I want Apple to hit it's sales goals and have a major hit on it's hands. I want new macbooks and mac pros coming off the production lines. And I'd like a suitable replacement for my 80GB 5.5 gen ipod video.
But I'm going to pass on the this hideously expensive and limited device this time. Once burned, twice shy.
I know I'm alone on this, but like Apple says; "THINK DIFFERENT!"
One of the best pieces of technology I've early adopted.
This is a the real deal. The One.
This device is in no way limited: you realize that when you spend
your first afternoon with one. The software will be updated
often and iTunes makes this a breeze. Not like my blackberry
which hits ebay on Monday.