My wife and I intend to hit up the local AT&T store this Friday for a pair of new iPhones. We’re currently T-mobile subscribers, and we’ve been with them happily for years. But the lure of the iPhone is too much to resist. We intend to show up an hour or so before opening, make ourselves comfortable in what we assume will be the back of a moderately long line, and hopefully be out with a phone before lunch. But honestly, we have no idea what to expect. Will we be the only morons out there at 7 am? Likely not. Will an hour before opening still be too late to get a phone that day? Again, we think probably not.
So, what about you? If you plan on buying a new iPhone on Friday, what is your plan of attack? Are you already in line, replying to this post from the sidewalk? Are you planning on trying sometime in the afternoon to see what’s left after all the idiots have wasted their time in line?
I’m a 1st-gen iPhone owner who bought the first day at an Apple store. It took about five minutes, including standing in the 8-10 person line; they were very efficient at getting them out. I won’t be upgrading to a G3 (no G3 coverage in either the area I live in or the one I’m moving to – in fact, G3 coverage is miserable unless you live downtown in a major city), but I doubt it will take long at all.
On the other hand, buy on the second day, and there will probably be no line at all.
I know this isn’t the way you want this thread to go, but this other 1G owner will upgrade his phone to 2.0 and lovingly keep using it as the bestest phone he’s ever used.
I don’t know when I’ll get my next iPhone…but I DO know when I’ll buy a competitor. (hint: never.)
FWIW, remember, iPhones have been ‘off the market’ for a month or so now, they’ve been churning out s many of them as they possibly can…that and pretty much ALL of the stores had pretty good stock after the 1G came out. Apple wants to get them in the hands of as many people as possible.
Problem is this time, at both Apple and AT&T stores, they’ll have to go through the full credit check and activation stuff at the time of purchase. I’ve heard worst case projections of 20+ minutes per sale.
Pretty much my approach. I called up my (UK) provider yesterday morning and wrangled one as a free upgrade out of them.
To be honest i’m not overly excited about it as i don’t tend to use 90% of the stuff you get on phones these days (i call and i text - that’s about it). I’m a web techie though and the “how will this look on an iPhone?” queries have been steadily increasing.
I have an iPhone 1.0 here as well that I absolutely love except for the EDGE connectivity being so slow.
I keep vascillating between “temperance and delayed gratification” of just taking the 2.0 software upgrade and waiting awhile to buy a 3G phone and “WANT MONKEY DEMANDS INSTANT GRATIFICATION BUY 3G PHONE NOW NOW NOW!” mode.
I have no idea who is going to win on the 11th but the Want Monkey has a damn good running track record of victories with these types of things.
Really, I have no idea why we’re so eager to get this at the first opportunity. We’re not normally the type to see movies on opening day, wait for new electronics launches, or stand in line for anything, frankly. But there’s something compelling about this…enough to make even my wife think it’s irresistible. And she thinks evrything new is stupid.
I passed on the first iPhone because I thought it was ridiculous that it didn’t have 3G data. I figured I already have a smartphone with EDGE, and it sucks. I told myself that when a 3G-enabled version came out, I’d get one. So maybe this eagerness is just me keeping a promise to myself. I don’t remember promising that I’d get one as soon as humanly possible, but that must have been what I meant.
I’ve officially gone iPhone bonkers, and I’m really conflicted on what to do on the 11th. It’ll be a busy work day, so I can’t afford to stand in line past 9am. So it’s show up at the store quite early to line up, or wait until Saturday. I’m not sure I will survive until the weekend.
That has not been my experience. In fact, quite the opposite. The iPhone is the best phone I’ve ever owned in terms of signal strength/reception, clarity of call, quality of speakerphone, in-call functions, and the visual voicemail is fantastic.
I’ve been waiting a year for this particular device, so I’m hitting the store on the day it goes on sale. But I’m not skipping work or anything to do so.
I get done with work early on Friday, around 2pm and am hitting the nearby AT&T store directly thereafter. I’m hoping that all the morning line-waiters and the lunch breakers will have cleared out by then.
I’m expecting the demand won’t be so insane that they’ll have sold out in the first five hours.
When the original iPhone came out, I wanted one, if only because the UI on most smartphones really piss me off. I decided to wait for the next-gen one, though, to see if it had any bugs to work out. So, yeah, I’m going to get one.
It’s not a huge rush for me, though… I’ll see if I can get one on Friday afternoon, or possibly over the weekend. I can wait.
Ironically, I had already booked the 11th as a holiday long before I knew of the release date. So I can be there bright and early with my MonkeyNose pressed to the window.
But.
Ever since Rogers (and its subsidiary brand Fido*) announced their rate plans, my ardour has considerably cooled. I dislike the 3-year contract, the locked phones, the high rate-plan prices, and the small quantity of data transfer allowed on the rate plans. No unlimited data from Mr. Rogers!
I’ve been a Fido customer since 1997, and unless I can apply my existing stock of “FidoDollars” (reward points) to the iPhone, and also just add a data plan to my existing voice plan, I may pass on the whole affair for a time.
[sub]*Fido, previously a separate company, was bought by Rogers.[/sub]
