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An end to iPhone lines? (Oh, probably not)

By Rain Noe - June 16, 2010

in Object Culture

One of the things technology is supposed to do, and has done a decent job of, is reduce the amount of time we spend waiting in lines. Self-checkout and barcode scanners speed the supermarket line; EZ-Pass and other regional automatic toll-collectors hasten the toll booth experience; and of course there's the decades-old telephone reservation that prevents us from having to wait for a table at the bar.

Will the annual Apple Store Line spectacle finally come to an end, or at least reduce in size? People seem to be getting hip to the fact that waiting in overnight lines is for suckers when there's a pre-order system in place. Which is probably why Apple and its associated partners--AT&T and Radio Shack--took a record 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4, with AT&T reporting ten freaking times the number of pre-orders as there were for the iPhone 3GS.

Overwhelming demand led AT&T servers to famously (and unsurprisingly) crash, suspending the pre-order process for all parties involved, and ship dates have been pushed back to July 2nd. Many would-be customers that managed to successfully pre-order reported glitches, like being charged the full unsubsidized amount for the new iPhone, even though they were upgrade-approved. Still, I think I'd rather spend a frustrated 30 minutes on my computer or cell phone sorting it all out rather than multiple hours using my physical body to occupy a physical space on a sidewalk, holding my pee and sweating in the sun. The latter just seems barbaric.

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Karl

14 years ago

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my friend preordered an ipad pressuming he would be one of the first to receive one and it was two weeks late. whats the point of it if they can't keep up with demand. especially when he could have picked one up on the release date at another store by 11am
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betertbe

14 years ago

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this is sad and sick, just like we had in Poland in communism. I still remember 1985 when there was a new delivery of fridges to a local store. The queues lasted for days. There where even lists so that no everyone would stand there. It was the same even with meat. People - it's only a phone which you will change within next one or 2 years!
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bryan johnson

14 years ago

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i used the apple store app and got it reserved no problem
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