iPhone: No iPhone For Me -- Yet
June 30, 2007

I braved the iHype yesterday for a speck of Jobsian Wonderment, but came away flummoxed.

Actually, what I did is step in line about 5PM at my local AT&T store to see if I'd be able to swing an iPhone. I'm an avid Mac fan, and the iPhone is a sweet bit of hardware that would make things a bit easier for me. I actually do like having my contacts, calendar, and to-do-list on my phone. The iPhone would make that so much easier. Since I also listen to a ton of audiobooks as I slog through LA traffic looking for restaurants, homes, and retail, having Google Maps available to orient my directionally challenged senses makes excellent sense. Plus, it's just so frakkin cool.

I wasn't though going to spend 24 hours getting a piece of tech. While the phone may be frakkin cool, I'm certainly not.

Recent conversation at the office:

Me: "For a style concious guy, your shoes look like they've been through hell."

Style Conscious Guy: "I know. I bought them that way. They're the latest."

Me: "Of course they are."

Like I said, I landed in line at the AT&T store on Lincoln and Washington right before 5PM and was surprised to find I was number 96 from the front. I thought for a moment I had pretty decent odds, figuring "100 units" would be a typical delivery to a store, everyone allowed to buy 1 phone at a store, and me 96 places from said store.. Then I realized Apple revised their criteria and allowed people to purchase two units each. Uh-oh. And 100 units, while a nice number, was just a random, round figure. No guarantee. Still, I loved the excitement of it all. Besides, there were another 40 folks behind me. At least I wasn't one of them.

About an hour in, after say thirty people had made it in, the news came that all of the 8 gig phone units were gone. 4 gigers remain, if you were so inclined. Of the remaining 90 or so people, about 30 bailed at that point. A few minutes later the last phone sailed for (someone else's) home and the line responded by disgorging half it's remaining adherents.

Was I pissed? Nah. It was a crapshoot anyway. I had fun waiting. It didn't take much out of me and, as a card carring geek, (or, in light of recent events, a doorQ is more apt), it's something I got off on.

A few observations. Having worked a theater at Sundance for many years, I have a bit of experience with a hot commodity that five times as many people are trying to get as there are are slots available for them too. We were pretty clear with people who lined up for sold out shows as to what the odds were for them to get a ticket and what their remaining options were if they didn't get in. We tried to keep people, if not happy, then informed. Made for a better experience. Generally.

I was therefore nonplused by AT&T's lack of information to those of us standing around, trying to get in. I understand they wanted to keep the mystery alive, the buzz building, and their coffers (potentially) even more full, but it was rather stupid not to tell people anything as the evening wore on, forcing information to spread by word of mouth. Not good. After person 50, they could have said odds of getting a pone were remote. After the phones sold out, they could have told the line that there was still an option of ordering one inside, for delivery later, instead of being needlessly obscure.

I did get to go into the store and order one. Apparently, more units should be available next week and they'll send them out as they have them. I plunked down an extra $14.95 to have it overnighted. No sense dealing with snail mail. I am a doorQ, after all.

Posted by Jody at June 30, 2007 03:29 PM

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