iPhone 3G S Launch Lines and Disassembly Photos

[janstett]

Hesitant upgrader from the 3G here.

The big thing that tipped me over was a feature that's flying under the radar -- voice command. Voice dialing should have been in the first phone, and I really feel this feature should have been added to older phones in the firmware, but adding in other things like iPod control won me over. Driving almost 3 hours a day this is a huge deal for me.

Other smaller factors -- more space (who can't use more space, my 16GB is full), I can use the boost in speed for SimplifyMedia, the video will be a cool feature, and I'm a budding iPhone developer so I'm adding it as a 2nd line to sidestep the prohibitive $499 price and I'll use my old phone exclusively for development.

 

[jholzner]

Doubt it. Multi-carrier in the US when 4G/LTE is out there. I don't see a CDMA (dead-end) version of the iPhone. Certainly not late next year when CDMA is even closer to death.

I agree. However, I would like to at least see them get on T-Mobile here in the states. That would be better than nothing.

 

[jamest71]

Woohooo!!! First iPhone!!!

I went to the King of Prussia mall in PA to get my first iPhone this morning. I would say there were about 80 to 100 people in line. I was about #25 in line and was out with my new iPhone(already working and making calls!!!) by 8:10. Store starting taking in people around 7:15. Great experience. The surprising thing to me was the number of people in line who already had iPhones.
Not 2 seconds after the Concierge clicked the activated message on my iPhone, I was getting texts from my gf. I was calling and texting in minutes.

 

[junker]

The big thing that tipped me over was a feature that's flying under the radar -- voice command.

If I remember correctly, that is an extra charge on your bill for the voice commands feature... I could remember that wrong, but just be aware.

 

[MikeyUSC]

If I remember correctly, that is an extra charge on your bill for the voice commands feature... I could remember that wrong, but just be aware.

You remember that wrong.. this is Voice Command on the 3Gs, not through AT&T..

 

[andycinek]

My Line

Suburban Square Ardmore, PA 6:00 a.m.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andycinek/3641135214/

Also read my line experience at http://iteach20.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-line.html

 

[GeekLawyer]

I agree. However, I would like to at least see them get on T-Mobile here in the states. That would be better than nothing.

Agree completely. I deeply dislike ATT's exclusive and wish there was carrier competition in the US. I just don't see it until LTE.

If I remember correctly, that is an extra charge on your bill for the voice commands feature... I could remember that wrong, but just be aware.

This is not correct.

 

[janstett]

I'm basically having to wait until it comes to Verizon. Not because I love or hate Verizon; it's that all of my family and majority of friends are on Verizon (yep, I'm stuck in their "network calls are free" game).

I don't see Apple doing a CMDA version, what's the current state of Verizon's GSM efforts?

 

[notromeel]

MMS Late Summer?

Did I miss something?

I waited in line this morning for 2 hours, switched from verizon... and I cannot send multimedia via texts? Since when did this little blurb appear?

"MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer."

 

[gri]

+1

The US lines are shorter primarily because the market is saturated and restricted to one carrier. The US lines are shorter because customers cannot easily and economically upgrade to the 3GS if they are recently under contract with AT&T and a previous iPhone. The lines are shorter because of the economy in general. The lines are shorter because of PRE orders. The lines are shorter because of pre-orders. The lines are shorter because there really isn't a compelling reason to upgrade from the 3G, unless money is burning a hole in your pocket, or you are obsessed.

Happy day for new 3GS owners. Not as happy for Apple, methinks - as last year.

Or you still have an original iPhone (pretty expensive one, too) and now its a nice time to get a new one - though I will miss my 1G one, pretty reliable in spite of its shortcomings...Will probably stay in the family.

 

[janstett]

If I remember correctly, that is an extra charge on your bill for the voice commands feature... I could remember that wrong, but just be aware.

There is a "soft" service where you call AT&T and they do things for you. That is an extra charge and what you are thinking of.

There is also a new feature in the 3.0 firmware called "Voice Command" that lets you operate the iPhone (including iPod functionality). It's built into the OS (though sadly not activated on older phones).

 

[thecypher]

with your AT&T rants most cell phones out are contracted too 1 service. yes Nokia might be on several carriers but different but most different models are carrier specific plus if AT&T bugs you that much either go to another carrier get another phone or pay the non contract price for the Iphone and unlock it then go where you want. But highly unlikely the Apple AT&T marriage will end real soon. and even if they did get more carriers or left AT&T many of you would still be crying. why they go to that one why not this one give me a fricking break! and the main reason I am getting the 3GS ia speed the rest is just gravy. and I wouldn't call them minor upgrades. but hopefully next years model will include built in Microwave.

Well said! I completely agree. There will never be a CDMA iPhone. Let the Verizon lovers keep dreaming
CDMA is a dead relic. Nobody on the planet uses that technology. The whole world is on GSM. Apple sells their iPhone in what 84 countries around the world right now?? duh?? Why do they need to manufacture a CDMA version?? I was on Verizon wireless for nearly 10 years starting with the old analog phones. I have been on AT&T for about 4 years now. While Verizon had great consistent coverage so does AT&T. I get great coverage everywhere I go and good call quality and I can use my phone when I travel abroad.

So all you Verizon loyalists, quit whining and get on the bandwagon or go stay with your Verizon service and use ****** phones. No phone and I mean no phone in the market even comes close to the iPhone in terms of its usability and its power no matter what anybody says. I have owned top of the line Nokia phones, Sony Ericsson, Motorola etc. and I have never used any of these the way I use my iPhone. Yes a lot of them had cameras, e-mail and web access, music playback blah blah. But just try using these features.

 

[justflie]

Did I miss something?

I waited in line this morning for 2 hours, switched from verizon... and I cannot send multimedia via texts? Since when did this little blurb appear?

"MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer."

That's been known and widely complained about (and rightly so) for about two weeks. It was announced during the WWDC keynote on 8 June.

 

[reckless2k2]

I went to the King of Prussia mall in PA to get my first iPhone this morning. I would say there were about 80 to 100 people in line. I was about #25 in line and was out with my new iPhone(already working and making calls!!!) by 8:10. Store starting taking in people around 7:15. Great experience. The surprising thing to me was the number of people in line who already had iPhones.
Not 2 seconds after the Concierge clicked the activated message on my iPhone, I was getting texts from my gf. I was calling and texting in minutes.

I showed up at Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne PA at 7:30am and no line at all. I walked right in and got my phone. I pre-orderd but they said there really wasn't much of a line at all. They assumed it was because they had so many pre-orders in the back office. They had quite a few non-preorder phones as well. A couple people walked in while I was waiting and just got one with no problem. I was in and out in no time. Amazing. Last year there was a line well over 100 deep and turn-aways.

 

[fc4090]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

it's 6:50am and only we 4 guys standing in front of AT&T shop....bummer!!!

 

[thecypher]

Agree completely. I deeply dislike ATT's exclusive and wish there was carrier competition in the US. I just don't see it until LTE.

Who else is there in the US besides AT&T who does GSM? Just T-Mobile. Their service is as good as any other carrier as long as you are in a major metro. As soon as you step out into the suburbs you are doomed. The phone is a brick at that point. BTW, wherever T-Mobile has good coverage they use AT&T network. T-Mobile does not have a lot of their own network in the US. They mostly ride on AT&T's network

 

[rscott505]

Suburban Square, Ardmore, PA

When I got the to Suburban Square, Ardmore, Pennsylvania store this morning at 5:30, there was about 20 people total in both the reserve and walk up line. Everyone was chatting and real friendly. (Obviously a nice advantage to waiting in line is the opportunity to speak with fellow mac fans.)

By 6:30, we, at the front of the line, heard that the line was starting to stretch quite far back behind the store.

Right before 7:00, the great staff came out with bottles of water and tastykakes (a philadelphia thing). They started letting us in right at 7:00, with the people who reserved going in first once they verified that we had in fact reserved. I was about the fourth person in, and the set up could not have gone smoother. I was out of the store by 7:25 with my shiny new iPhone in hand. As I walked back to my car, I would say there was about 300 people in line. So nothing like the endgadget picture.

Once I got home, I loaded it up by doing a restore from backup.

This things really flies compared to my first generation iPhone. I hope everyone enjoys the day, and has good luck with their new iPhones.

 

[jonnyb]

Says it all...engadget.

View attachment 177519

Doesn't say it all, actually...

I arrived at the Apple store Regent Street at about 5.50am this morning. I'm not in that picture. So it must have been taken prior to that.

By the time us early arrivers had been let in to wait inside at around 7am, there were 40 or so of us. After we were let in, the queue continued to build outside until the actual advertised opening time of 8am. By the time I left with my 3GS soon after that there were plenty of people.

The pic on the right was taken as the doors opened on November 9th 2007. At 5.45am on that morning, there was a similar number of people. About 9, in fact. Yes, I was there that morning, too.

But I guess it wouldn't be much of a story if Engadget compared apples with apples would it?

 

[machappymeal]

Quite start in the Belfast apple store. Also just a small queue at the o2 store belfast.

 

[wardev]

why is the 3GS box so much smaller?

 

[Parky]

The 3G-S is a hard sell for Apple this time round, mainly because the vast majority of the fanbase are still locked into 18-24 month contracts, and the expense of the 3G-S is an obstacle to new customers who don't see a vast difference physically between the 3G and 3G-S.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 3G-S but those mostly likely to appreciate the new features are those that are still under contract and unable to buy it without considerable expense buying themselves out of their contract.

I'm not surprised the launch queues are small this time round due to the above along with the fact that you can order online so there's less incentive to queue.

It is an update to an existing model, nothing more.
Apple do not expect masses of existing 3G users to upgrade.
This upgrade is to make the iPhone more attactive to people who don't own one yet. New feaures and a big price reduction (remember the 16GB has fallen by $100).

 

[Parky]

The UK iPhone 3GS has a MUCH smaller plug now

That is brilliant!

 

[joshwest]

I picked up mine this morning in Nashville and the line was about 10 deep, when i pulled up i asked the line is this for pre-orders and some lady said yes and said back of the line. Two minutes later a lady came out and said did anyone in the line pre-order their phone I raised my hand and she waved me to the front of the line and said wait a min and i went in. Then a lady in the line proceeded to complain that she was here first the AT&T employee said "i'm sorry mamm he pre ordered last weekend they get to come pick theirs first." Then after the pre-order's received their phone's they let regular people in line buy them. They were not suppose to let them in till 9.

 

[coasterswim]

My AT&T store was not letting non-pre-order people until 9 am with no exceptions. Even though there were only a handful of pre-orders.

 

[gri]

enjoy, all you 3Gs'ers!! i'll be waiting for the 4th gen . . .

We will be enjoying the 5th generation than. Thats going to be hell of a device... Or - should we better wait for the 6th one, which is probably EVEN better...?