I'm back home after getting my reserved phone at the Burlington MA store. I was in the first 20 or so of the reserved line, having arrived around 5:45am. By the time the store opened at 7am, there were about 150 people in the reserved line, maybe more. The non-reserved line went the opposite way down the mall and it was impossible to tell how long it was, but it had to be worse than our line. I heard that people had lined up overnight.
Before the store opened, they had employees handing out coffee and donuts and water and answering questions. After the store opened, they had someone walk through the line checking in people with reservations and then you waited until an employee came out to help you specifically then you went in and got your phone. They did take people from both lines, but more people from the reserved line. I got in around 7:30 and was out by 7:40. It goes faster if you don't read the terms of service yet again (because really, are you going to say no?) and if you don't finish the activation in the store. I'm currently syncing my phone but I did a quick e-mail check after the initial activation and the resolution looked stunning.
As for those who say it's stupid to wait in line instead of pre-ordering, well, I worked really hard on the 15th to even get my reservation (starting early), always getting hung on the AT&T eligibility check. In the end, Apple skipped that so my only choice to get a phone today was to reserve in-store. And from the looks of it, even if you have a reservation, lines are the rule today. Congrats to those of you lucky enough to have the pre-order actually work.
