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What is the latest time you could arrive at an Apple store and still get an iPhone?

A

ap3604

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 11, 2011
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Wondering since I've never had to show up early for a launch day, What is the absolute LATEST you would arrive at an Apple/Att/Best Buy/RadioShack to purchase an iPhone 4s on launch day???

Not looking for exact answers just want an idea/your opinion of how early I should show up at each of these stores in order to pretty damn confident that I'll be able to get a white iPhone 4s 16gb...

Thanks for your input :)
 
Seriously?
how should we know how many people are going to show up at "a apple store" att/ verison/ best buy/ sams club/ sprint ...ect..... retailer and how many phones they will have in stock?? and then what is the "latest" you can show up and still get one... :rolleyes:

if you want one, get in line the night or 2 nights before the 14th , like the rest of the crazy people and hope they have a 16 gb in black left when you get your turn.
 
For the 4 I noticed people at the mall Apple store just before close with a very short line. I think they even stayed open 30 minutes later to sell to everyone waiting.
For 3g I went at about 3:30 and waited for about 45 minutes.
 
fanboy05 said:
how should we know how many people are going to show up at "a apple store" att/ verison/ best buy
Click to expand...

That's why I said I'm not look for exact answers, mainly asking people who experienced this last year going early for an iPhone 4 and how late they went and still comfortably got an iPhone they wanted...
 
ap3604 said:
That's why I said I'm not look for exact answers, mainly asking people who experienced this last year going early for an iPhone 4 and how late they went and still comfortably got an iPhone they wanted...
Click to expand...
Ah well then that is a much more reasonable question... "if you stood in line to order a 4 , 3gs ect... when did you arrive and how long did you wait, and did you get a phone that day?"

for the
4 I arrived at my local att retailer before it opened 3 hours early, and waited about 45 minutes to get in. I was able to pick up an iphone 4 that day.
seeing that this years preorders are even greater than last years, I would assume the lines would be longer.
If you MUST have a phone I would go as early as you can and wait. if you could afford to wait , then show up when it is easy for you and if you dont get one, you will know it was too late.
Good Luck!
 
Thursday morning to mid-day I would say... that's for the San Francisco Flagship store near me...
 
I arrived last year at my apple store in the mall at 7 am and got one of the last phones... there was a good 200+ people in front of me.
 
I got to my local mall at 4:30 AM and was able to successfully walk out of the Apple store with a pre-reserved iPhone 4 at a little after 8:00 AM....a friend who also arrived with me who didn't have a pre-reserved iPhone because he could never get through to the Apple site to do that waited in line pretty much the entire day before he finally was able to get his iPhone 4.

This year, no pre-reserved phones....either they're pre-ordered and shipped to someone's home or office or the purchaser has to take a chance and go stand in line at the Apple store on Friday or later on......

If you want an iPhone 4S on Launch Day, you'll have to get to the Apple store very, very early on Friday.
 
jellis said:
For the 4 I noticed people at the mall Apple store just before close with a very short line. I think they even stayed open 30 minutes later to sell to everyone waiting.
For 3g I went at about 3:30 and waited for about 45 minutes.
Click to expand...

last year, my local apple store stayed 90 mins after the store closing to finish all the pre-orders and in store purchases. I ended up waiting 4 hours to pick up the pre-order.

I had better luck picked up the ipad2 earlier this year from best buy while there were extra long line at the apple store.

It was fun hanging out with the people waiting in line though.

To answer your question, it really depends on your location. if you have a busy apple store, it could be hours. I think the line should be shorter if any this time though.
 
What store are you going to?

I went to the AT&T store on launch day....went there at 5am and sat in line til they opened at 7am....could have gotten there a little later, but needed to make sure I could go in get a phone and get to work on time. I didn't pre-order. If you are going to an apple store, get there early....if you are planning on going to an AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, BestBuy, Radioshack, etc. store check when they are opening and go a couple hours early.
 
Last year i showed up to the apple store about 30 minutes before close. I got my tickets for my two reserved phones, but they were handing out tickets to those who had no reservations! This continued all the way until close, which means they had aome left for saturday morning.

In fact, a friend simply walked in at 9:30 am the next morning and got their phone with no wait.
 
On launch day, other than getting there early, I think it will be hard to get a 4s. However, every year I hear about someone , at a random time of day, just walking into either Apple or ATT and walking out with a brand new iPhone. Let us know how it works out.
 
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