Thousands crowd iPhone launch in Singapore
Steve Jobs is not the only one who knows a thing or two about event marketing. Check out Damian Koh's photos of the launch of the new iPhone 3GS in Singapore Friday night.
By 8 p.m., according to SingTel, Apple's (AAPL) exclusive local carrier, between 1,500 and 2,000 eager customers had gathered outside company headquarters for the festivities, with many more expected over next two days.
"On average," executive vice president Yuen Kuan Moon told Channel NewsAsia, "a customer during the peak period will queue between anywhere for three to four hours."
Some people waited a lot longer than that. Jackson Low, 29, a medical test subject recruiter, was second in line for the iPhone 3G last year. Just to be sure, he arrived 11 hours early this year and was both first in line and first to walk out of SingTel headquarters with a new iPhone 3GS. (See photo, left.)
To help build excitement — and swell the crowd — SingTel staged fireworks and a confetti drop worthy of a Republican National Convention. Waiting customers were ushered through three "experience zones" to keep them entertained.
But the biggest draw — besides the iPhone itself — may have been the presence of television actress Felicia Chin (right) one of Singapore's top 10 most popular "female artistes" for three years, according to Star Awards, and winner of two of 2008's top 8 most likeable female characters (Lin Fei in The Golden Path and Tao Haitong in Love Blossoms).
Koh caught Chin in a quiet moment with a new iPhone 3GS for which we suspect she didn't have to wait in line. Or, for that matter, pay for.
Thanks to iPhone Asia's Dan Butterfield for the tip.
Photos courtesy of Damian Koh.
UPDATE: It turns out the photos don't quite do justice to the magnitude of the event. For a video shot by one of the first customers in line, see 3GS insanity in Singapore.
Joe,
The iPhone plans don't look bad at all to me, they're less than half the price of AT&T's iPhone contracts, starting at USD 27 including 500 MB, 100 mins and 500 texts. Looks like one of the best deals in the world.
And if you really don't like them, Singtel will let you stay on their regular contracts, with an optional 1GB data package for USD 14.
Stinktel does it again. They screwed up another iPhone launch. One would have thought they'd learn from last year, but alas…
They made people like me believe that the launch was so exclusive that in order to even queue, we'd have to pay S$50. To my great annoyance, there was a walk-in queue when I got there. And it was moving faster than the pre-reserved queue. What did I pay S$50 for, Stinktel? So I could wait 5 1/2 hours for my iPhone while others just waltzed in in front of me?
Fireworks & confetti drop worthy of a Republican National convention? Please… the fireworks were mis-timed, the video wall was so lame, and the confetti drop just littered the whole place.
As for the celebrity appearances, we saw them on stage for a few minutes mumbling replies to noob questions about some nonsense apps they were playing with the night before, then they disappeared! In any case, you can hardly consider them eye candy. I agree with Randy, they could have used the money to pay for more staff.
As for crowd numbers, I can easily believe 3000, cos it felt like 10,000 to me.
Thank God I have my iPhone 3GS now or there'll be Customer Service hell to pay.
Forget about the Pre..
Its cr*p! Would you pay SGD30.49 for the game Bejewlled2 on Pre whose store has less than 30 apps
OR, purchase the Bejewelled2 on iTunes for USD2.99, and whose AppStore has more than 150k+ of apps
@Doug, go for it!
How low are you willing to go, I'm ready to buy and please convince few more people to short Apple, I'll be very pleased to get some below $130 
1. One of the most expensive iPhone contracts in the world.
2. Singtel – terrible after sales company. Very nice launch, forget about getting any service afterwards.
3. Queue of nearly 400 people I was nearby, don't belive the 'numbers'
“On average,” executive vice president Yuen Kuan Moon told Channel NewsAsia, “a customer during the peak period will queue between anywhere for three to four hours.”
– wrong, most of us waited anywhere from 5-8hrs!
But the biggest draw — besides the iPhone itself — may have been the presence of television actress Felicia Chin (right) one of Singapore’s top 10 most popular “female artistes” for three years,
– errr, who told you that? we absolutely detest those mediacorp actresses! just give us our goddamn iphones! they should have put the money to other uses, errr, like paying more part-timers to man the counters perhaps????
– stinktel apparently didn't learn from their mistakes… this launch is just as bad as the original 3g launch last year! sigh, apple please drop stinktel for your future iphones, your customers deserve better!
Play nice kids. It seems that good people can turn into an a**hole when someone have some negative comments about something that they love. It shows that love is blind. Take a step back, take a deep breathe, relax, and remember the facts.
That's right Doug. The iPhone is for sophomoric people who "can" write a coherent sentence. Stick with your pre. You've earned it.
@Doug the Moron
The Pre Provider,
Sprint, on the other hand, has $4.5 billion in cash, carries a whopping $22 billion in debt, fails to deliver nearly as much cash flow per revenue dollar, and fails to push positive return rates on invested capital. Most of what cash is made just goes back to debt holders.
I think maybe it's because Taxi Lah! is such a useful app! :p