The iPhone line in New York City grows - but not much
Matt R., Matt D., Geoffrey and Kyle
Six days after they began queuing up to buy iPhone 3Gs outside Apple’s (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City — hoping to set a Guinness record and garner publicity for the causes of sustainability and locally-grown food (see here) — the sunburned eco-warriors of TheWhoFarm finally have some company.
At 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning, 25 hours before the new iPhone goes on sale in the United States, four self-described Apple fanboys - all members of Montclair (N.J.) High School’s class of 2008 - showed up, blue canvas folding chairs in tow, to take their places in line: Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14.
These young men better fit the stereotype of someone who might spend a day and a night - never mind seven days and seven nights - camping out in front of an Apple Store for a chance to buy the latest gadget out of Cupertino.
Matt Dodd, 17, is a registered iPhone developer, and although he says his programming skills aren’t what they’d have to be to write a full-fledged commercial application, he cared enough about the iPhone platform to go to San Francisco in January for Macworld 2008 and again in June for the World Wide Developers Conference. He’s definitely going to buy an iPhone 3G Friday.
Geoffrey Kaicher, 17, is pretty sure he’ll buy one Friday — if he can get someone to sign for it (he lacks a credit card). His pals Kyle Hobin, 18, and Matt Rosenhein, 18, alas, will not.
So why spend more than 25 hours in line?
It’s a fanboy thing. “I didn’t get to go to Macworld or WWDC,” says Rosenhein. “This is my way of being part of an Apple event.”
Burned the fan base? Name another company in this business that would offer a $100 (50%) rebate to the early adopters… people who had one several months before the price drop. I know several of those people and frankly… they didn’t care. They still LOVE their devices and some plan to get a 3G.
The allure is chasing technology. Drive a camel to water, drive males 18 - 34 to machines that click, whir, and hum.
Gosh, Phil, this reminds me of one of the first stories we did together when you went out to visit some math whizzes and they sounded just like these IPhone disciples. Plus ça change…
It’s amazing anyone is waiting in line. After Apple burned its core fan base with the drop in price last time, you would think that people would have learned.
What could a 32GB 3G iPhone be for Christmas?? $399?
- Analyst: Apple will sell 4.47 million iPhones this quarter
- Best Buy to sell iPhones starting Sept. 7
- Steve Jobs: 60 million iPhone apps downloaded
- iPhone: Trouble in the App Store
- iPhone nano: A rumor before its time
- On the road
- iPhone apps: 1,001 and counting
- Jobs tells Times: No cancer
- Who is to blame for MobileMe?
- Two weeks later, New Yorkers wait 4 1/2 hours for an iPhone
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
“So why spend more than 25 hours in line?”
Because it’s an easy way to get some of your 15 mins of fame from media hacks who will “interview” you…