Live from the (relatively sedate) iPhone 3GS launch
The new iPhone — awkwardly named 3G S (since shortened to 3GS, no space) — went on sale in New York at 7:00 a.m. EDT. This is my live blog of the event from the glass cube of Apple's (AAPL) Fifth Avenue store, posted in reverse order with the most recent items on top.
8:00 Inside the store, the processing of new customers seems to be proceeding in an orderly fashion. There are scattered problems here and there, including reports of extended activation delays, but in general it's a vast improvement over last July, when Apple's servers crashed under the load. (Apple learned its lesson and put a couple days between the launch of iPhone 3.0 and the release of the 3GS.) Last year, after two hours trying and failing to get my then-new iPhone 3G activated in the store, I finally left and did it from home. This year I'm heading back to Brooklyn empty handed. I'm not going to buy a 3GS until I can get the full discount in December.
7:45: Wrapped up my interview with CNN International. A kindly Apple PR person has taken pity on me and let me behind the lines to get power, Apple Store Wi-Fi and access to a men's room. The official estimate of the crowd when the doors opened, she tells me, is 300 people. [UPDATE: By the time someone talked to the New York Times, Apple's count had grown to 400. Piper Jaffray team counted 350, and senior analyst Gene Munster now thinks his prediction that Apple would sell 500,000 units the first weekend might prove to be "conservative." ]
7:18: The first customer to emerge with an iPhone 3GS is immediately surrounded by reporters, photographers and TV camera crews. I might have made a better picture, but it would have meant walking away from my MacBook.
7:02: The gates open, the crowd starts moving forward, our Jersey boys are at the head of the line. It's a relatively orderly and civilized affair, for an iPhone launch. The employees in their blue and orange T-shirts showed great restraint, no running down the street like madmen, whooping and screaming. Just steady clapping as the customers march down the stairs in groups of 10 to pick up their iPhones. (I've posted a 76-second movie here.)
7:00 Crowd roaring. Whistles. Clapping.
6:55: Apple employees gathering under the big round staircase, getting ready to go crazy. From time to time small roars erupt from the crowd for no apparent reason. The TV crews are lined up to get the first people in line.
6:45: The crowd now fills 8 twists of the maze; I estimate it at about 220 people.
6:40: The tension has started to rise. I'm afraid I might get booted out of my perch near the corner of the cube, where I'm getting a weak Wi-Fi signal from inside the store.
6:38: Security guys have started to lay out the crowd control tape. I recognize the heavy who roughed up Daniel Bowman Simon, the environmental activist who was first in line for the iPhone 3G last July. I guess Apple was not unhappy with the job he did.
6:28: The clowns have started to show up. A guy in body-size iPhone costume and a cardboard sign urging people to recycle their iPhones; a pair of lovelies in lime-green Gazelle shirts; two guys offering to buy old 8GB iPhone 3G at $200 a pop. Lots of cameras, two TV trucks with masts and one with a satellite dish.
5:58: Two Apple employees in red shirts are manning the entrance to the barricade maze, sending newcomers to one line or the other, depending on whether they have a reservation. Apple seems to have anticipated a larger crowd than they are getting because the maze is clearly too big. Guys in black shirts are removing the extra ones, perhaps the reduce the impression that the turnout is small. Carlos, the Apple employee manning the front of the line, assures me that they have plenty of units in stock. I think he may be right.
5:53 There are two lines, reserved and nonreserved. I count 61 in the reserved, 48 in the other, for a total of 109. The last person in the reserved line, joining it with a little more than an hour to go before the doors open, is Saadiq Akal, 30, a financial analyst from Mill Basin, Brooklyn. He has an iPhone 3G, but he wanted to get the new model. Why did he come so early? "I wanted to get home and get some sleep."
5:50: Sam Epstein, 18, from Montclair, N.J., is first in line. Two of his buddies have gone to find a bathroom. One of them — Keith Hobin, whom we interviewed Thursday — had to go home. Spending the night on the pavement, he said, wasn't too bad. "I managed to get a couple hours sleep."
5:49 Dawn at the Fifth Ave. glass cube. There's a small crowd bunched together on the 58th St. side.
5:43: Approaching Fifth Ave. station. Wondering how the boys from New Jersey — whom we last saw huddled under big black umbrellas loaned to them by the Apple Store staff (see here) — fared overnight.
4:55: Waiting for the R train to Manhattan.
4:45: Out the door. Thursday's rain has stopped. The sky is already lightening over Brooklyn.
4:30: File my first story of the day: "The iPhone 3GS stripped bare in Paris"
3:40: Boot up. The New York Times online has stories about Democrats scrambling to scale back health care reform plans, the deepening confrontation in Iran and the Continental flight from Brussels that landed safely with a dead pilot in the cockpit. E-mail from Rapid Repair tells me they have posted the first iPhone 3GS teardown from Paris.
3:00: Alarm.
I should have wrote this all on one comment. but i cant edit past comments so here i go again. i'v posted the "event" on my blog http://JustinLCabrera.blogspot.com/ incase you wanted to read it Mr. Elmer-DeWitt also have a link to your page so people can come see this blog 
ex ped: Thanks for the link, Justin.
Jay,
Its been well documented on various blogs and news channels that a NEW iPhone was coming. Silly YOU for buying one in April.
Would you prefer that these tech companies upgrade their hardware every 10 years or so – so you can get your monies worth?
I saw our local Apple store today and there was a line of people camped out. Camped out FOR A PHONE. What shocks me to no end is that people took time off from their day to stand in line for hours for a PHONE. Our President has threatened to raise taxes on the upper-income population of America. These are the people who work hard and make the most income. Meanwhile, there are people who can blow off work or job-hunting and stand in line all day for a phone. Let's get these people back in the work force so they can earn some dollars and pay their taxes, that way the upper-eschelon is not carrying the load for these techo-geeks who have nothing better to do with their day than stand in line at a mall to be the first to have a phone. Anyone who braved the elements to get the new iPhone on Day One reaches the farthest depths of loserdom that I can only begin to imagine.
HAHAAHAHAHAHA You are all suckers.If you want a real smart phone get a NOKIA N97!!!!!! The iphone is the tickle me elmo of smart phones.
O and others, I recommend going online to AT&T's website and checking to see if you are eligible for the discounted upgrade. Login to your account and select upgrade. AT&T will tell you if you can get the new 3GS for the discountd price, then just order online instead of waiting in line and dealing with all the hassle of getting your phone set up. You have an iphone now, all this will die down in a couple of weeks when you get your phone in the mail.I wish this was an availible option last year and hope they continue to do it from here on out.
The nerve of them to sell me a phone in April and then debut new one in June and I can't buy it at upgrade price and have to pay full price.
APPLE PLEASE LEAVE AT&T AND GO TO VERIZON–ASAP! YOU'VE PEETERD OUT WITH AT&T IN TERMS ON SERVICE & CUSTOMERS–ALL SIX OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS WON'T LEAVE VERIZON FOR AT&T–ATT SERVICE SUCKS–SORRY ITS THE TRUTH–IF YOU RESIGN WITH AT&T THEY GAVE YOU THE CELL COMPANY & THE KITCHEN SINK THAT COULD BE THE ONLY REASON WHY YA'LL WOULD DO THAT. HOPEFULLY YOU WON'T
I honestly do not understand why some of us resent those people who want to queue up to buy a desired gadget. It's their time, their money; they can spend them as they see fit – if that's what makes them happy.
Got my new Iphone today from the Apple Internet store. Managed to update all files. AT&T was not able to connect the phone thru Itunes, claiming problems due to an overload in requests. It appears that I need to wait 1-2 days before I can use the new phone!!!
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but in other countries (England, Europe, etc…) phones like this are given away for free. Why are we lining up for 5 hours to throw away our money?
ex ped: You are wrong. The only carrier who gives iPhones away for free is O2 in the U.K. and they get it back in spades with an exorbitant rate plan.
Reading articles such as this one could never tell that the country is in a recession! Times must not be that bad if people can line up for hours to buy teh latest high priced gadget!
All this for a phone that is still substandard compared to other PDA phones. It doesn't multitask, lacks removable storage or any way to access the onboard storage space except the horrible iTunes software, and STILL no removable battery. Absurd for people to spend all this time and money on a phone that's just a gimmick.
Hey David,
Do you mind giving more explanation about that waving fee you were talking about?
I am only eligible on December 12 (was on the line for the 3G in July also) and don't want to spent $xxx when I could be paying $199.
O.
People wait in line to get a phone and tout 'new' and 'revolutionary' features that have existed on other phones for some time now.
If you want it becasue it's cutting edge, or stylish, or because everyone else has one then have the spi8ne to say so.
Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between AT&T and ITunes/Apple…ITunes no longer accepts activation of Prepaid – Pay as you go service. Of course they didn't tell me this until AT&T charged my card $59 first month pay as you go service. When I tried to activate my IPhone through ITunes I was told as of last week, they no longer provide prepaid service. AT&T won't refund my money…just a heads up in case you had prepaid Iphone services. Now I have a dead $300 Iphone permanently locked and no cellphone. Thanks Mr. Jobs!
Man, You spent all that time in the store and in line and didn't know that AT&T was waiving the upgrade fee for a limited time!
According to the article, those who are eligible for an upgrade in July, August, and September can get it now.
When the announcement was made about the new 3GS, check my upgrade status (having stood in line last July for the 3G) I too was told December 2009 as the earliest date for eligibility.
As soon as this article came out, I checked again and was able to get it now. I preordered the 3G s 16 GB for $199 after having paid $299 for a 3G 11 months ago.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/?fpn=iphone%20owners%20qualify%2
0for%20discount%20phone
ex ped: The discounts are extended to customers who spend more than $100 a month with AT&T, which would not be me. Last time I checked (which was this morning) I don't get my discount until Dec. 12.
hey im the guy with the white windbreaker. as soon as i got home i was searching for this blog. and your welcome for picking up your verizon Drive
ex ped: And I am in your debt, Justin Cabrera. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing!
Do you think you could take a shot with the S when you get your hands no it; so that we see the pic quality?
Actually the cost of the Iphone 3GS is significantly cheaper in the UK than the US, and the plans simpler which is strange. You can get it free but the most popular tarrif of £40 about $60 gets you unlimited internet, 1200 minutes a month 500 texts (also in the US i believe you pay for incoming texts and minutes, not in Europe) and on that tarrif the phone will cost you the equivalent of $120