How many hours did you stand in line for the iphone 4?

[gentleman00]

From 4:30 to 6:00 am I spent waiting in line outside of the Pioneer Place mall in Portland, Oregon. From 6:00-10:30 am inside the mall until I purchased my iphone4. In all, I spent 6 hours in line.

[johnnybluejeans]

I'm about 5 mins from getting my phone. Been waiting 2 hours 40 minutes at the 14th St store in Manhattan.

[Blueline29]

A little more than six hours here, also. We were outside from 5:45-7 (and the sprinklers came on, which was lovely) and then those of us with reservations got to go into the mall. Waited there from 7-12:15 or so. The line moved INSANELY slowly.

[Holty123]

5am 3rd in queue 8:02 in store
8:25am 32GB iPhone 4 in hand
macintime

[udontsurf9]

30 min at radioshack

[abijnk]

Going on 11 hours here, still about 50 people ahead of me.

[sananda]

5 hours at Regent Street, London.

[joeybuckets]

30 min at radioshack

LMAO

[RealSkyDiver]

We were outside from 5:45-7 (and the sprinklers came on, which was lovely) lol as has happened to us. one of the sprinklers actually came on right where a guy I waited with was sitting and totally soaked his pants! That was hilarious:D oh and I waited from 9pm till 10am so I own you all.

[rwilliams]

1 hour waiting from 6-7 for the doors to open, and then 3 hours after they opened.

[yayaba]

Got to the Hillsdale Mall location in San Mateo, CA at 3:30am. They let us in the mall at 5:30, and I got into the Apple Store at 8:30. Left at 9am. So around 6 hours.

This was for the no reserve line. The line at that point was fairly long when we left.

[Blueline29]

lol as has happened to us. one of the sprinklers actually came on right where a guy I waited with was sitting and totally soaked his pants! That was hilarious:D oh and I waited from 9pm till 10am so I own you all.

All of the guys in our line continued standing on the sidewalk, getting sprayed by the sprinklers, but all of us chicks were like, "Um, no." For a bit we stood in the shrubbery that wans't being sprayed and then moved into the street part of the parking lot since nobody was driving through there anyway.

Oh, and they told us, maybe an hour before I got into the store, that the reserve line was 4x the size of the walkup line. They'd already started telling walkup people that they were pretty much wasting their time being there before we even got into the mall. It was lunacy.

[Magirune]

Went to the Apple Store at the mall in Salem NH. Figured it would be one of the less crowded ones since there were no meetup threads on here. From what I can tell, this rang true - the Peabody location (another one nearby) sounds like it was even more insane. Still, it was pretty nuts.


Lined up outside at 4:30AM. They started letting people into the mall 10 at a time at 6:45AM. At 8:30AM, I finally got in (was 70th in line). Finally, at 1:30PM, I left with my 32GB phone and a black bumper (non-reserve). So, 9 hours total.

The turnout looked to be about 500-600 people, they wrapped around two sides of the mall. Around 11AM, the store employees started turning away basically everyone who came after 5AM, since they were running out of phones. Great way to waste 6 hours. I feel sorry for them. :(


The line went *really* slow because they were giving everyone tours of their phones instead of ringing them up quickly. It's nice they do that, but I wish they'd make an "express lane" for people who just wanted to ring up and get out of there. Also, they let in 5 reserves for every 1 non-reserve customer, so someone who actually got a preorder in would have a different story.

On the bright side, the employees were really nice. They gave out tons of water and Gatorade bottles for anyone who needed a drink, and later they gave out chocolates, mints, and cookies. Some guys in line ordered food, too - there was a big stack of pizzas that people seemed to be enjoying.

I could think of much worse company to spend 9 hours with. :)


P.S. Didn't notice until just now, but I didn't get charged for my bumper. The guy who rang me up was pretty on the ball, so I think it was intentional. Maybe the store was giving them away as consolation for the sore feet, haha.

[nightcap965]

In line @ 5:45 a.m. Gave up at 11:00 a.m. Apple employees were great; Mall employees... not so much. Such a terrible imposition on them, all these people crowding their pristine mall to buy stuff...

[iTzChasE]

Zero, and I got it two days early. lolololol

[Magirune]

Zero, and I got it two days early. lolololol

Next time I'm going to just not sleep for 24 hours before the online preorder date. Hitting :apple:-R on store.apple.com for a day would be less of a pain. :D

[PhoenixMac]

girlfriend got there at 9 out at 1 the ratio was 10reserves to 1 walk-in christiana mall store did over 1k people today before 2pm

[dreamteam]

Got in line at 9:30pm, walked out of apple store at 11am.

We were around #40 in the walk-in line. Store opened at 7am and for the first two hours were doing a ratio of 30-to-1. They finally moved to 5-to-1 for about an hour, the 3-to-1.

I learned my lesson. ALWAYS pre-order!

[engelke2010]

I got to Washington Square in Tigard, OR a little before 6am. I got inside the mall right after that and waited in the first line until 6:45 or so when I got moved to the reservations line. I got inside a little after 8:00. I was pleasantly surprised the whole thing, including setup took less than 2 1/2 hours!

[iGaryMonnecka]

13.5 hours including 2 hour wait 5 feet in front of the damn door. the ratio at the store was over 25 reserves to 1 walk-in

[Kyle Appleseed]

4 hours at 12 oaks mall in Michigan with a reservation.

[Reluctant Adept]

Pretty much five hours on the nose for me, with a reservation. I had arrived at the mall at 10:40am. People getting to the front of the walk-in line at the same time had been there since 6am.

[camsd85]

Lined up at around 10 pm in the walk-in line at UTC Mall in San Diego at #57, got inside the store at 12pm, iPhone purchased and activated in 2 minutes out the door. Total of 14 hours! That was exhausting...haven't slept in 24 hours.

[Krad3130]

I was one of the lucky Radio Shack "PRE-ORDERS". Called my Radio Shack yesterday and was told they had my phone and was about to call everyone on the list (I was 1st). Made an appointment at 11:00 AM, walked in, got my phone, walked out.

I had the phone in my hand, activated in about 15 minutes. Only 2 other people in the store (Mall Radio Shack) and neither was there for an iPhone. This particular store had about 4-5 iPhones shipped to them.

I know there are a lot of people who got screwed by what happened to Radio Shack and Best Buy, but this was much better then waiting in line for hours IMO.

I know to some people they enjoy the waiting and chatting it up with people in line. I can see where that can be fun for a little while waiting in anticipation with everyone there....but I could only stand it so long. An hour is more then enough for me lol.

Congrats to everyone who got their new iPhone today!! :)

[LittleRedBird]

13 hours total. Went to Apple at 11:30pm after seeing a thread that the line was already enormous at 10pm. Finally got my phone at 12:30pm. Slowest line ever! But, the other folks in line were very nice as was the Apple staff. I was a walk-in.

[Ronnoco]

Two hours from the time I drove into the parking lot to the time I drove away with my new iPhone 4...all in all a very pleasant experience...we met such nice people in line and the line moved rather quickly once they ran out of non-reserved phones...this was much better than I could have ever expected...:)

[Floobling]

I got to the mall at about 3:30, but they weren't letting people in the parking lot until 5. We eventually convinced security to let us in at 4:30, although it was a made rush with 50 people racing to get the door first. From there we waited until 6 for the mall to open, and then 7 for the Apple store to open. I had my phone and was walking out of the Apple store by 7:15.

All in all, it was about 4 hours total, although it looked like it would take longer than that if I came anytime after 6 or 7. I checked the reservation line when I was leaving, and it stretched all the way until the end of the mall.

[Brad Oliver]

About an hour and a half for me.

Joined the reservation line at the Arrowhead store in Glendale AZ around 11:15am, walked out with phone activated at 12:45pm.

Went pretty smoothly considering. The Apple employees were handing out water and cookies from the Paradise Bakery upstairs in the food court.

[Jill1228]

Apple Store-San Francisco (reserved line). Got there at about 5:30am. Was in the store by 7:30am and out of there by 8!

So a total of 2.5 hours from start to finish

[abijnk]

Going on 11 hours here, still about 50 people ahead of me.

Got in line at 4 a.m. with approximately 260 people ahead of me. After they separated out the reservations there were about 160 people ahead of me. Walked out the door with our iPhones at 9 p.m. :(:o:):eek::D

[rdowns]

No reservation. Went to Apple Store at about 5, waited 30 minutes and left with a 32GB.

[cardjoseph]

I had two reservations at the Apple Store in Columbia, MD, and I arrived around 8:30 AM and didn't leave the store with my two 32GB's until 4:50 PM. So 8 hours and 20 minutes. Total time spent IN the store: maybe 10 to 12 minutes.

[gentleman00]

I had two reservations at the Apple Store in Columbia, MD, and I arrived around 8:30 AM and didn't leave the store with my two 32GB's until 4:50 PM. So 8 hours and 20 minutes. Total time spent IN the store: maybe 10 to 12 minutes.

Went to the apple store in Portland Oregon, and waited one hour in line to get the iphone4 for GF. Sweet :D

[durian]

Went to the Pasadena store Friday morning at 8:40am. Got phone activated by 9:15am. Didn't have reservation or voucher.

[Hxcjohnny]

12+ hours at Friendly Center Apple store in Greensboro, NC. The walk in line took forever.

[Stephen23]

20 minutes.

I decided to check out one of the stores here in Austin, so I went to Barton Creek Mall at around 9:30 or 10am this morning. After having huge lines yesterday, there was no line when I got there, though security was hanging out, waiting to see if one appeared. I walked in, asked about availability (assuming they were sold out), and took about 15 minutes to go through the process and walked out with my phone.

Really glad I had to work yesterday and couldn't stand in line.

[SteinyD]

2 hours on release morning from 6:15-8:15a. Great customer service experience and line management from Apple at Short Hills, NJ. Water, coffee and snacks provided to all in line from early in the morning.

[WolfMetalFab]

I had two reservations at the Apple Store in Columbia, MD, and I arrived around 8:30 AM and didn't leave the store with my two 32GB's until 4:50 PM. So 8 hours and 20 minutes. Total time spent IN the store: maybe 10 to 12 minutes.

Nonreserved at the Columbia, MD store, arrived at 3:50am, left the store with my 32gb at 7:25pm so only a 15hour 35 min wait (spot #90 @ 7am) and same here, 10mins tops spent in the store.

[dukebound85]

10pm to 9:30 am

[kds786]

Great stories!

Since I didn't pre-order and AT&T and BestBuy didn't do walk-ins, I was forced to go to *gasp* Wal-Mart to get one. I am NOT a Walmart fan so this wasn't fun, but anyway...

It was a redneck small town Walmart which I thought might be the least crowded. I figured right. I got there at around 4:15 am. Between 7 am and 7:30 am two more people showed up, so there were 3 of us in line, with me first. Right at 8 am, 2 more people showed up for a total of 5 in line. Walmart only had 2 iPhone 4s and 8 3Gs phones. So I got the first one! So I waited from 4:15 to 8:45 including the set up & activation of my phone.

[Abyssgh0st]

18 hours and 7 minutes at the University Park Village Apple store in Fort Worth, Texas.

7 PM on 6/23 - 1:07 PM on 6/24.

[808geek]

Picked mine up at Stoneridge Mall Pleasanton, CA. In and out in roughly 10 mins on Friday morning around 10am. I came yesterday since I had a reserved one and the line was insane @ 230pm. The employee at the front of store said the line had been like that all day and he guesstimated a 4 hour wait. The person who was next to walk in from the reserved line had already been there for 8 hours. The gave me a claim ticket to be able to come back today. Great for me, cuz their was no way I was waiting in a line like that. So happy I got a claim ticket and was able to come back this morning with no line. Although the walk in line had about 30 people or so.

[YodaOfDarkness]

18 hours and 7 minutes at the University Park Village Apple store in Fort Worth, Texas.

7 PM on 6/23 - 1:07 PM on 6/24.

Beat you by 5 minutes!

18 hours and 12 minutes... 3:08 AM - 9:20 PM at Simi Valley, CA.

List of things that happened:
1 Reserve, but grab an extra when they got in? Check.
Understaffed, "more at noon" never showed up? Check.
"We can guarantee up to here for 32gigs"? Check.
"We can guarantee phones up to here"? Check.
"We can guarantee 16gigs up to here"? Check.
"No phones, go home, it's just a phone"? Check.
"We'll release any unclaimed reserves at 9"? Check.
Got a phone after 9? Check! :D :D

[forty2j]

Freehold, NJ walk-in line.

Got to mall at 5:40 AM.

Was inside on line at 6:15 AM. Somewhere around 100-125th.

At 10:30 AM, I went home to work. My wife held the line.

At 3:00 PM, I joined her in line again.

At 3:30 PM, the line started yelling at the security people (alleging people were going in out of line and getting their phones, though it appears they were getting the $99 3GS's), yelling at the store employees (for taking more from reserve line than the non-reserve line), and yelling at random customers who wanted to go in and browse and possibly buy cables or macs or printers or something (because they were taking valuable associates away from the iPhone launch).

At 4:45 PM, we finally got in, and we left a bit after 5 with 2 phones.

So, ~11.5 hours.


Personally, I think the store did a great job with a bad system. I think Apple should have had a pre-launch, reserve-only day on Wednesday, or not allow walk-ins until Friday. It was annoying knowing that there's enough stock to get to our place in line, but there just weren't enough reps to handle it expeditiously and the ~900 people that cycled through the reserve line were top priority. The 3G launch was fantastic at that store (arrived at 6:30PM, 3 hour line), but there was no reserve line then.

[linkyarmer]

I opted not to risk melting under Texas sun or catching pneumonia from the rain. Instead I waited 24 hours before even trying. Friday morning (10:00 AM) from my work, I called 5 different Walmarts in the Grapevine/Lewisville/HEB area until finally one store said they did have them on stock. I headed straight to the Walmart and called again when I was close to make sure they still had them. They did. When I got to the Electronics dept, they told me I was the first to pick one up that day. Thursday their initial stock was only one, but Thursday night they received 24. They cracked open the first case (of 12) for mine and I was out after about 20 minutes. I called a buddy coworker of mine and he was there before I was finished with my transaction picking up one for himself. After making sure I had mine, I promptly posted the location that had 22 remaining iPhones for my fellow iPhone fans on here to know where to go. So glad I skipped the lines Thursday and REALLY lucked out on Friday. Happy hunting my friends.

[Clix Pix]

Arrived at the Tysons mall at around 4:30 or so, waited in the crowd -- one line -- until they split us into two lines, one for reserves and one for walk- ins. At 5:00 they let us into the mall and we lined up in two separate lines in front of the store, snaking down the hallway of the mall. I was about #25 or so in line, got into the Apple store at about 7:15 and was out before 7:30, new iPhone in hand, all activated and ready to go!

[krnboy503]

First in line at 8:00pm the night before (6/23) and definitely worth every minute :)

[Mystikal]

7. I didnt get one.

[dsn112]

Walked up at 3pm no reservation, left 30 mins later with two 16gb phones

[Dusk22]

Less than 2 hours for me on launch day. I got to Cherry Creek Mall in Denver at 6:06 AM. There was about 175-200 people in front of me. I left the store with iphone in hand at 7:50am. Very smooth.

[BearsFan34]

My experience/such in a long post in the middle/toward the bottom of this page here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=941315&page=2).

[hansenc]

15-16 Hours

got there on wed at 6pm, 23rd in line, line moved inside right before sun came up around 6am (yay for AC, located in FL btw). Walked out the store around 8:30-9am.

[parker770]

0 minutes:D

I called around yesterday trying to find a walk in available somewhere in Dallas, and it seemed like they were sold out EVERYWHERE I called.

On a whim this morning I checked the Dallas thread and someone posted that he had gotten one at a nearby Wal-Mart this morning, and that they had 3 left as of 10:30. I got there at 11:30, walked back to the electronics, asked the dude behind the counter, and he grabbed one for me.

I did have to suffer through an hour long debacle with the electronics guy trying to figure out the system, but at least I had the phone in hand the whole time:D

Sure beats some of these 12+ hour waits.

[iBookG4user]

13 hours, got there at 8PM and left with a 32GB phone at about 9AM.

[ScottNWDW]

On June 24th I waited 10 hours to get the iPhone. I got to the mall around 9:45am and got into the apple store about 7:35pm, out of the store by 8:00pm. The line was moving slowly, before noon it wasn't that bad, then around noon it got to a snails pace and there was a period where in one hours time we did not move at all. I have no idea what ws going on.

[hexonxonx]

I was in line for seven hours.

I originally had two reservations but upon hearing how long the lines were at that store, went to another store at a mall. Glad I did because I didn't have to stand in the hot sun for too long, maybe 30 minutes after the sun came up.

[chris650]

i live in San Francisco suburb and work in SF downtown. I stopped by Apple store in SF downtown on Friday afternoon, as I was getting off work. I stood in line for 1.5 hours, and got my iphone.

I don't have a reservation, no pre-order either.

[runtohell121]

from 6 AM to 5:45 PM.. 11 hours and 45 minute.. LOL

[BIG BOSS]

0 hours......Fed Ex delivered it to me on the 23rd. :D

[KC2]

8 hours (6:30am-2:30pm) at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, GA with reservation.

My brother spent about 2 hours (5:30am-7:30am) at North Point Mall in Alpharetta, GA, also with a reservation.

[wooglins]

Arrived at Green Hills Mall (Nashville, TN) at 1:05AM. Entered the mall at 3:50am. Entered Store at 7:00am with first group allowed in, left at 8:30am (The salesman really wanted to play with my new Iphone4).

Total Time : 7hours 25 minutes.

[AutoUnion39]

A little over 11 hours. I was about 5th or 6th to do in line and the Apple Store was averaging about an hour for every 2 people, so I ended up paying the guy at the front of the line $20 to let me go, which was ok with everyone else around him. Got one of the last 32gigs too