Some people suggest our headlines don’t always match the content, but I don’t agree. In this case, the headline results from the fact that I made three attempts to buy an iPhone 3G before I succeeded. I hope you appreciate my dedication to the task, or my stupidity for wasting so much time before I was actually able to buy one.
It all started early Friday morning. I had assumed that the nearby AT&T factory store wouldn’t be inundated with shoppers waiting to buy one. That would seem to be the province of an Apple Store.
But I was totally wrong. When I arrived at the nearest AT&T outlet, nearly 150 people were waiting in line. I walked casually to the rear, asking someone offhandedly if this was the “Star Wars” line? My foolish remark earned a few chuckles and perhaps a number of episodes of rolling eyes.
An AT&T salesperson came by shortly thereafter. He said that they had 80 phones in stock, but nobody budged.
Except me, after I asked the location of the next nearest store.
There, the situation seemed more promising. The crowd was closer to 100, and had begun to shrink rapidly. But nobody from AT&T showed up to reassure anyone that they could actually take an iPhone home. So I had someone reserve my place, walked to the entrance and had a brief conversation with the sole AT&T employee in evidence outside.
As I feared, they said they didn’t have near enough product to fill the demand, but they could take the order and have it shipped directly to the store “in a few days.”
At this point, I was tempted to simply give up the quest, at least for that day.
Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter. [1]