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There are enough apple fanboys in this world to have a line outside every damn apple store even if Jobs played a practical joke with the launch date...
 
There will certainly be a line, because people like us will be telling people "don't buy now!" all through April, May and June.

That's what happened with the 3G. Not only did you have lots of 1st-gen people upgrading, you also had 3 months worth of new users who had been delaying their purchase as they waited for the new version.

No matter what Apple does, there are going to be lines when you try to serve 3-months worth of customers in 3 days.
 
I won't be waiting in line for the new iPhone (or be purchasing one), but I think the lines will be of a similar size. Apple purposely kept stock low in stores at the beginning to drum up demand and lines and it worked like a charm. They'll no doubt do the same this time.

I waited in line for about two hours on D+1 for my 3G and actually enjoyed it, but I won't be doing it again. Just as I am happy with my late 2007 iMac, my early 2008 Mac Pro and my Rev A MBA, I 'm very happy with my iPhone 3G. When it is no longer useful, I will upgrade, but not before, and certainly not just because there is a new one.
 
Apple purposely kept stock low in stores at the beginning to drum up demand and lines and it worked like a charm. They'll no doubt do the same this time.

The store I went to didn't sell out until Monday and it had long, 4+ hour waits all weekend.

So if your theory is correct, there shouldn't have been any lines on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, since they had plenty of phones, right? But that's not what happened.

The biggest factor was the activation process. They could only process so many people per hour no matter how many phones they had piled up in the back.
 
Are you all prepared to pay $399/$499 for the non subsidized price? I'm sure thats what it will be, say you bought the 3G launch day and go to buy the 3rd gen in June or July. You have only had that sucker for a year, sooooo, $400/500 Right? I don't think I can bring myself to do that.
 
The store I went to didn't sell out until Monday and it had long, 4+ hour waits all weekend.

So if your theory is correct, there shouldn't have been any lines on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, since they had plenty of phones, right? But that's not what happened.

The biggest factor was the activation process. They could only process so many people per hour no matter how many phones they had piled up in the back.

Interesting. All of the AT&T stores in Fort Worth (TX) and the closest Apple Store (about 30 minutes away), all sold out pretty early on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (at least).

On the Friday the 3G was released, the lines at 8:00 a.m. were far longer than I was willing to tolerate. By 11:00 (when I went back by several of them), the lines were all but gone because all the stores were sold out. I know they were having activation issues, but that didn't prevent them from selling all their stock pretty quickly, anyway.

My wife and I got in line at 8:30 in the morning on Saturday. As the store didn't open until 10:00, we were only behind 5-6 people. By the time the store opened, the line was closer to 50 people. By this time, they had ironed out the activation issues and we left the store with our iPhones around 11:00; the line was even longer than it had been an hour before. Most of the people in that line did not get an iPhone before they sold out that day.

Went back to the AT&T store around noon on Sunday to look at a case and they were sold out again.
 
A bit premature?

Surely this thread is a bit premature?

Wouldn't it make more sense to get a sense of things once Apple's PR and hype machines have kicked in?

Right now anyone can say: "Oh, I won't… be waiting in a line. Been there done that. Me? I am jaded. :rolleyes:"

But just wait… just you wait… till Jobs or whoever stands there and flaunts a little sliver of Apple electronics. The queue will be around the block before you can say "Over priced and Under specced."

:D:D
 
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