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How difficult to get on launch day? iPhone 4 experiences?

J

jason2811

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 8, 2006
729
2
How difficult was it to get an iPhone 4 on launch day last year if you didn't preorder it? I assume in places like NYC there were huge lines at Apple and AT&T stores. What about smallers stores in more rural areas and smaller stores in NYC?

Also, how far after launch did they become available again if you couldn't get on on the release day?
 
Forget launch day, that's too late. As above order online early. I got mine two days before launch. :cool:

If you insist on standing in line on launch day expect to be there all night. :(
 
i didnt get my iphone4 on launch day, but i did get the ipad2 on launch day. had my gf wait in line for 3 hours, i got there, waited another hour and got it. there were only about 25 left though so it was close (and i didnt get the model i wanted, had to get the 64gb one)

but if you can preorder, just do that, might get it early
 
I heard the lines were crazy in and around the surrounding Chicagoland areas. Wouldn't say it was as bad as the iPad 2s though because quite a few customers, such as myself, chose to preorder and avoid the rush.
 
Question, if you preorder iphone from Apple, does your exisiting phone plan, in my case AT&T roll-over? My wife gets a 15% education discount from AT&T (doesnt apply to phone) but the phone plan. I want to preorder only if I don't have to worry about our current pricing plan.
Thanks
 
If you want it on day 1 order online. Last year mine came in the day before the official release date. When I went to the Apple Store at 6pm on release day there were still more than 200 people in line. The line started around midnight the day of the release date.
 
brudio said:
Question, if you preorder iphone from Apple, does your exisiting phone plan, in my case AT&T roll-over? My wife gets a 15% education discount from AT&T (doesnt apply to phone) but the phone plan. I want to preorder only if I don't have to worry about our current pricing plan.
Thanks
Click to expand...

If you pre-order your plan remains intact.
 
fazm said:
i didnt get my iphone4 on launch day, but i did get the ipad2 on launch day. had my gf wait in line for 3 hours, i got there, waited another hour and got it. there were only about 25 left though so it was close (and i didnt get the model i wanted, had to get the 64gb one)

but if you can preorder, just do that, might get it early
Click to expand...

That's a good woman right there. Sounds to me like you have a keeper! lol
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think it will be like the iPad 2 with no pre orders, the only chance of getting it on launch day will be to que up overnight.

Then there will be a few weeks wait to get hold of one from the next batch
 
Waiting in line with a bunch of hipster apple tools with soft feminine bodies was a miserable experience. I will not try to get an iPhone on release day in person again. Next one I will order online.
 
brudio said:
Question, if you preorder iphone from Apple, does your exisiting phone plan, in my case AT&T roll-over? My wife gets a 15% education discount from AT&T (doesnt apply to phone) but the phone plan. I want to preorder only if I don't have to worry about our current pricing plan.
Thanks
Click to expand...

djransom said:
If you pre-order your plan remains intact.
Click to expand...
While we don't have the specifics for the preorder process this year, in the past for the iPhone 3G/3GS/iphone 4, when you preordered, you had the option to keep your current plan as long as it is a "Current" voice rate plan that is still offered by your carrier. This is true if you preorder with Apple or AT&T. If you chose the upgrade option, you will see your current rate plan and features, have the chance to make any changes and then submit the order.

You will need to accept a new two year commitment "contract' and agree to any new Terms of Service (TOS). Any existing National Account service rate plan discounts should remain attached as long as you don't change the name on the account.

Dave
 
djransom said:
If you pre-order your plan remains intact.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ransom.
I really was anticipating Apple's media event would be sooner the Oct 4. After all the time Apple's taken /needed, it seems that the new phone will be more than the addition of iOS5 and minor tweaks to the 4.

----------
dave006 said:
While we don't have the specifics for the preorder process this year, in the past for the iPhone 3G/3GS/iphone 4, when you preordered, you had the option to keep your current plan as long as it is a "Current" voice rate plan that is still offered by your carrier.
Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave
 
Here in Canada the iPhone 4 launch was crazy. We didn't get a chance to preorder it or anything so a few of my friends and I went to the Square One Mall to line up. We got there at around midnight, and were already about 60th in line. As the hours passed until the 7am opening, tons of people arrived. By the time the mall doors opened at around 6:30am, there were about 700+ people.

Once the store opened, the employees let everyone know that they had about 2500 iPhones, so everyone that was in line was able to get one, even two since they had a 2 per customer limit.

It was lots of fun, so when it comes to iPhone 5's launch, I'm camping out again :)
 
jason2811 said:
How difficult was it to get an iPhone 4 on launch day last year if you didn't preorder it? I assume in places like NYC there were huge lines at Apple and AT&T stores. What about smallers stores in more rural areas and smaller stores in NYC?

Also, how far after launch did they become available again if you couldn't get on on the release day?
Click to expand...

Took me 4 hours to get one with a reservation. I was told about people who arrived at the mall in the middle of the night or early that morning who either didn't get one at all, or were there until after 11 pm before they got one. Basically, Apple was letting the people with reservations into the store at a ratio of about 10:1 versus the people who just showed up with hopes of getting one.
 
Iamgort said:
Waiting in line with a bunch of hipster apple tools with soft feminine bodies was a miserable experience. I will not try to get an iPhone on release day in person again. Next one I will order online.
Click to expand...

So you spent time in line staring at dudes so much you got to know their body types?
 
Last Year I reserved my iPhone 4 online and arrived at the mall around 2:00 am. THere was about 100 people there already. I was the 5th person to have a reservation. When Security let us in at 2:30 I ended up 2nd in the reservation line. The first guy in the waiting list line had already been there for about 20 hours. Around 5:30 the store manager came out with a counter and told people at the end of the line that they didn't have enough for everyone.

I stuck around to talk to my friend who preordered and arrived around 6 (he was about 100 people back). I was told that the ratio was 50:1 in favor of the reservations.
 
I live in Miami and I have no problem waiting in line the night before, however, I have an exam scheduled for 1:00pm that day, Just curious if stores start selling the phones at the time they open or if they make you wait until a certain time. When I bought my iPad2 I arrived at 9:00AM and they didnt allow people in the store until 3:00PM. Assuming there is no pre-order this year does anybody have any experience with the sale time? I dont want to have to get out of line at 12:30 because they decided to wait until the store is ready to sell...
 
How difficult is it to preorder on the Apple site? Does the website move extremely slowly? And are there a limited number of preorders available?
 
jason2811 said:
How difficult is it to preorder on the Apple site? Does the website move extremely slowly? And are there a limited number of preorders available?
Click to expand...

Last year, it was easier to preorder on Apple's site as opposed to AT&T's, but it was by no means a speedy, painless process. You had to refresh pages a LOT, and many times, you'd get through 90% of the process before it crapped out on you. Thank goodness for the Apple Store app for the iPhone, or a lot of people would not have been able to get reservations and then things really would have gotten ridiculous.

I would imagine that they've planned for this year's launch and will have their servers ready for it, if they're allowing pre-orders at all.
 
I preordered mine from Best Buy last year and didn't wait at all. My appointment to pick it up was at 7am and by 7:30, I had my iPhone 4. Add this along with my Silver Reward Zone account and I'll be doing the same thing for the 5.
 
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