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Time of iPhone 3G Launch Remains Unclear
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Hope and Despair ?
Am I the only one who's beginning to get a slightly sinking feeling that what we'll end up seeing on the 11th, at whatever time, is queues to put the PS3 release to shame, and lots 'n lots of very disappointed people when stores quickly run out of supply? I'm thinking this release is going to be nothing like the relatively unfrenzied release of version 1, because the 8GB 3G model is at a price point that many, many, many people can easily afford. I'm picturing an absolute clusterfrick, with harried sales staff and an overpowered activation system and lots of gnashing of teeth. I'm considering showing up 6 hours earlier than the 8 hours early I was already planning on, and bringing a huge gas grill and cooler to sell cheap food and beer to other tired, hungry, thirsty idiots such as myself. Like an iPhone tailgate party, yeah!
Am I the only one who's beginning to get a slightly sinking feeling that what we'll end up seeing on the 11th, at whatever time, is queues to put the PS3 release to shame, and lots 'n lots of very disappointed people when stores quickly run out of supply? I'm thinking this release is going to be nothing like the relatively unfrenzied release of version 1, because the 8GB 3G model is at a price point that many, many, many people can easily afford. I'm picturing an absolute clusterfrick, with harried sales staff and an overpowered activation system and lots of gnashing of teeth. I'm considering showing up 6 hours earlier than the 8 hours early I was already planning on, and bringing a huge gas grill and cooler to sell cheap food and beer to other tired, hungry, thirsty idiots such as myself. Like an iPhone tailgate party, yeah!
Wow, thats some tangible evidence right there! First of all, none of it is exciting or new that we haven't heard of. And second of all, do you have nothing better to do in your day than make these up and hope that 1 person will believe you?
Rogers Canada will release the iPhone 3G on July 11, so I can imagine that everyone else will get it at the same time.
Funny because Rogers is trying to "hype" the launch.
Funny because Rogers is trying to "hype" the launch.
Something just hit me, this year's launch is nothing like last year's. We will have a new activation method. For example, let's say that a store had 1,000 iPhones to sell. They have 10 cashiers and activation takes about ten minutes. That equals out to be around 16 1/2 hours of activation.
If they open up at around 6 PM, then Apple and AT&T will have to pay thousands of dollars in OT for those working extra for long into the night.
However, if the stores open up at 8 and close at 10 at night that's 14 hours, time to get through 840 activations and only pay about 3 hours of OT. Just a thought.
If they open up at around 6 PM, then Apple and AT&T will have to pay thousands of dollars in OT for those working extra for long into the night.
However, if the stores open up at 8 and close at 10 at night that's 14 hours, time to get through 840 activations and only pay about 3 hours of OT. Just a thought.
Early Morning Launch?
My local O2 shop seemed to think they were opening early on the 11th. They said to come by at 7am to pick up an iPhone 3G.
They will also have demo models in on the 4th.
But who knows with local shop knowledge, they may have just assumed each shop can sell the iPhone whenever from the 11th, and decided 7am was a good time to start.
I certainly won't get any work done that day if it's true!
My local O2 shop seemed to think they were opening early on the 11th. They said to come by at 7am to pick up an iPhone 3G.
They will also have demo models in on the 4th.
But who knows with local shop knowledge, they may have just assumed each shop can sell the iPhone whenever from the 11th, and decided 7am was a good time to start.
I certainly won't get any work done that day if it's true!
The PS3 was not very hard to find at launch because it was so expensive, but I agree with your basic point. The iPhone is very likely to be like the Wii for a while given the new price (yeah, I know it is more expensive overall, but people don't think that long term and the up-front price is now much cheaper). There are going to be lots of disappointed people who want one and can't get their hands on one for a while. There is just no way this launch is going to go smoothly given the price and the added complexity and time sink of in-store activation requirements.
Personally, I really want an iPhone 3G but I'm not even going to try buying one on July 11th, I'm going to wait until the dust settles. I'd rather get it a month or so later than stand in line for like 10 hours to make sure I get one.
1. you are assuming that every country will have the same rules
2. this is not like harry potter or a cd or game release where someone can run home scan/rip the dang thing and upload it the world for impatient folks to steal.
there are many doubts about your logic in my mind. and who cares about the anti iphone media. they are going to gripe no matter what.
and I highly doubt that the stock value will pummet because of short lines or that a significant number of folks will decide not to get a phone because 1000 people were not in line at very major store. if they want the phone, they want the phone. if they don't it is because they abhor ATT, they don't need the gimmicks or whatever.
running out is just par for the course. there's no way that any store can guaranteed their supply.
we have no information about the actual activation system that will be going on so it's impossible to call it on that. but what I can say is that every apple store I have ever been in has those hand held pay things for credit cards which I will bet will be required (no cash no checks) which means a likely 10-20 'registers' in action and thanks to the chaos only folks that want a phone will dare to come to the stores. so things aren't likely to be as harried as you think.
no state allows anyone to work that long. so maybe a handful of folks would do a 10 hour shift but that would likely only be a few folks since something like 85% of non management employees in any retail business are part time. so they would likely start on rotations and be at most 8 hours each.
plus you could be wrong about the 10 cashiers and the 10 minutes.
but two of those products aren't really that big of a deal. mobile me is just dotmac renamed and the itunes apps store is a service add on to the phone so it is basically being released at the same time as the phone. any updates for previous owners will likely be handled online like they do quicktime and such. so not a worry to the stores.
I've heard the UK iphones will be launched at 0802. The previous one was 1802, with the 02 to represent our carrier o2.
No I'm only assuming that every carrier would have "a" set of rules in place.
Actually it's worst. With digital media, it can be at least be judged 1st hand by the consumer and by it's actual context vs being judged by one persons crappy review or crappy pics posted on the web of a stolen product.
Apple cares about anti iPhone media. In the same way that any business cares about anti product media. Product image;business brand means the world.
why add fuel to the fire? Certainly not the attitude I would want any employee to have in my business.
you grossly under estimate sheeple in the stock market and the wizards with the pointy hats who lead sheeple with their unfounded theories and forecasts.
The cheaper the price a product gets , the more spontaneous the buying decision becomes. This is true of most products on the market.
So as the price a product becomes less relevant, other factors begin to dominate the purchasing decision. A short line could turn someone away from an iPhone as easily as a short line could turn someone away from entering a nightclub.
This is only true when the length of the line is expected to equate to the experience of the product itself. And is why many businesses go to great lengths to actually create the illusion of longer lines.
My local O2 store tell me that I can "clear" credit check from 4th July but not pre-order or reserve phone. They will open from 07:02 for sales on 11th July. I know you can't trust stores people, so take this as you will. Just posting what I was told.
You're kidding, right? I've worked in two states on jobs that requiered AT LEAST 16 hour days, 7 days a week. There is no "state restriction" on jobs like this; it's more often the employers that don't want to pay OT (unless your employee is under the age of 18).
Opening times
So, unlike what i said earlier, most places will actually be opening at 0702, but some more remote places will be 0802.
Credit checks etc will be able to be done before hand, infact the whole purchase, you just wont be able to collect your iphone untill launch time. I would go to store and preorder/pay/creditcheck as soon as you can, which i think is from the 4th onwards, becuase its really likely the creditchecking computers will stop working after about 10 mins of sales! Much easier to just come in and collect your iphone without the fear of broken computers.
So, unlike what i said earlier, most places will actually be opening at 0702, but some more remote places will be 0802.
Credit checks etc will be able to be done before hand, infact the whole purchase, you just wont be able to collect your iphone untill launch time. I would go to store and preorder/pay/creditcheck as soon as you can, which i think is from the 4th onwards, becuase its really likely the creditchecking computers will stop working after about 10 mins of sales! Much easier to just come in and collect your iphone without the fear of broken computers.