Apple's iPhone to hit stores, hundreds wait on line
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Hundreds of gadget fans, or their paid stand-ins, lined up on Friday to be the first buyers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a music and video playing phone that seeks to reshape the mobile industry.
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By ANICK JESDANUN NEW YORK - For Jessica Rodriguez, waiting four days for an iPhone is nothing when the prize is &quot;the next big thing.&quot;On Tuesday, Rodriguez became the fourth person to line up outside Apple Inc.'s Fifth Avenue store in New York.
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Even for Apple, which has thrived on taking risks, the iPhone represents an audacious bet -- possibly its biggest ever. When the new smart phone hits store shelves June 29, the company will have a lot more on the line than the success or failure of one product.
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The hooplah. The stories. The comment Apple's iPhone goes on sale in the US this evening. The queues have formed, and limits placed on how many of the handsets punters can take away with them. What is all the fuss about? Find out by reading Register Hardware's most popular iPhone stories...â¦
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Apple Inc.&#39;s  highly  anticipated iPhone, with service provided by AT&T Inc. ,  will go on sale June 29, the company said on its Web site on  Sunday.
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(InfoWorld) - When Apple launches the iPhone on Friday, it is set to get a jump on its competitors and spark a flurry of new phone designs, regardless of how well the device actually sells. By introducing a combined smartphone, mobile e-mail platform, and MP3 music player with a touchscreen interface, Apple has sent other hardware vendors running back to their drawing boards. And the company has enjoyed positive press coverage since CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January, analysts said. Apple is feeding the fire with strong advertising in its retail stores. On Monday, staffers at the Apple store in the Cambridgeside Galleria mall in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wore black T-shirts with the logo "the wait is almost over," printed above an image of a calendar page for Friday, June 29. iPhone anticipation has already created a "halo effect" of increased sales for Apple's notebook and desktop PCs, an impact that is likely to increase after the launch, according to a report from ChangeWave Research. Apple posted a strong profit for the last period despite struggling with a U.S. federal investigation into executives backdating their stock options. In April,Â Apple beat Wall Street expectations by posting a profit of $770 million for the second quarter, an 88 percent rise from that period last year. Because the company has already garnered media attention and a sales boost from iPhone demand, Apple will suffer little damage even if the device is a flop in retail sales, one analyst said. "No way Apple will seriously impact Nokia or Motorola or Samsung, who combined sell over a billion phones a year. But if Apple manages to sell several million, then that is probably pretty good for their overall business," said analyst Jack Gold, founder of the research firm J. Gold Associates. "I think the potential gold mine is in the services, not the phone hardware." The iPhone will bring new subscribers to Apple's iTunes online music store, and Apple could make more money if it decides to launch future wireless mobile products like navigation, location-based services, VoIP telephony, and video streaming, Gold said. In the meantime, Apple has already given a headache to competitors scurrying to catch up, such as Motorola, Samsung, and LG Electronics. Even vendors with comparable products -- like Nokia's N Series and High Tech Computer's HTC Touch phones -- lack Apple's cachet and will have trouble competing on store shelves, he said. In fact, some experts are warning that iPhone sales could fall short of Apple's high expectations. Their criticism includes potential user confusion about Apple's "virtual keyboard," a battery that may fade too fast and is not user-replaceable, andÂ resistance by some corporate IT departmentsÂ to the added expense and security risk of supporting mobile e-mail networks in addition to the servers they use to support Research in Motion's BlackBerry device. Those drawbacks could limit the iPhone's success in the business market, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research. Still, the iPhone will be popular with those who tend to use smartphones more by scrolling through menus than typing long messages and who have made Apple's iPod music player a huge hit despite similar concerns about its battery, Wu said. Likewise, consumers will likely shrug off corporate security concerns and use mobile e-mail systems from GoogleÂ and Yahoo. In the long run, Apple will use the iPhone to beat its competitors in creating an end-to-end channel for digital media, spanning from Mac PCs to the mobile iPod music player, iTunes online store, and Apple TV set-top box for sharing Internet and television video content. The only thing Apple could do to spread that net even wider would be to offer iPhone models at less than the current $499 for a 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB, Wu said.
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(InfoWorld) - How badly do you want anÂ iPhone? Would you pay $1,500 to buy one? How about $300 for someone to wait on line for you? A cottage industry to help the desiring acquire the coveted Apple device is springing up prior to its Friday evening U.S. launch. Posts on Craigslist offer a host of options for those unable or unwilling toÂ wait in lineÂ themselves. Others are simply cutting to the chase and offering the device itself for as much as three times its retail price. Online resale of popular electronics items at a premium, especially game consoles such as the XBox 360 or Playstation 3, is nothing new. However, such hysteria has never greeted the launch of a mobile handset before. The iPhone's sale launch seems increasingly like the release of concert tickets than the debut of a consumer electronics product. However, unlike tickets to a live event, which is time-sensitive and has limited capacity, the iPhone sale period will be ongoing, and Apple expects to sell as many as 10 millionÂ of them next year. Also, Apple has not announced per-person buying limits for iPhones on launch night. Because of the nature of cell phone sales in the U.S., where most phones are "locked" to a particular number and service provider, Apple is unable to use what would otherwise likely be its most successful sales channel: its online store. Instead, consumers are forced to go to AT&T and Apple's physical stores to get the goods. Neither its ultimate availability nor the $499 price tag has stopped market forces from coming into play. Lazy buyers can choose line-waiters based on price and location. In California, one would-be waiter in Walnut Creek "will wait in line @ Apple Store in WC for 80 + Beer and a pack of Smokes." That's a veritable bargain compared to "Vince" in the Danville/San Ramon area, who's asking $300 to "wait in line for the release of the iPhone at the San Ramon AT&T Store on Bollinger starting Friday, June 29, 2007, at 8 a.m." In New York City, $250 seems to be the going rate for an all-day wait. "This service is for people who want an iphone on launch day, but have a day job and therefore cannot wait on line. I have at leastÂ 5 line-waiters who are up for the job," wrote this anonymous poster. While Craigslist is awash with iPhone-related listings, eBay's site is devoid of any advance sales of the handset. In March, the auction company said in March that it would remove pre-sales for the phone. However, eBay policy only prohibits listing of items that cannot be shipped within 30 days of purchase. EBay representatives were not immediately available for comment. Those with far more money than time can buy an iPhone outright, at least if anonymous online sellers can be believed. "Avail for pick up Friday after 6pm. $1500 cash only," reads one ad. Caveat emptor. Â
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Blog: Two days before the iPhone hits store shelves, and there's still no line at the AT&#38;T store in New York City's Times Square.
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Apple Inc.'s  upcoming iPhone  is shaping up as this year's must-have gadget, but several  perceived shortcomings are pushing some potential buyers to  wait for an updated version.
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Customers eager to buy the cellphone had waited in long lines in front of Apple stores in New York and other cities.
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Apple Inc.'s  iPhone may be  too expensive for most Americans, but the much-hyped device is  expected to help AT&T Inc.  win quality customers and  drive shoppers into its stores.
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As they wait to nab an iPhone, early risers across the country are seeking to share their experience in real time.
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Blog: Apple has announced that its retail stores will close from 2 to 6 p.m. on Friday ahead of the "iPhone World Premiere" from 6 p.m. to midnight.
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The most eagerly awaited cell phone ever is upon us Friday. Should you resist the iPhone's breathless hype, or take the plunge? Unless you're already standing in line outside an Apple or AT&amp;T store, or are prepared to mug one of the first customers to come out after the 6 p.m. launch, the answer, at least for now, will have to be "let me think about it for a week or two."
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Apple Inc. &lt;AAPL.O&gt; will start selling its iPhone on June 29, a debut that will test whether the company's design success with Mac computers and iPod media players can carry over into mobile handsets.
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Blog: Apple and AT&#38;T stores are starting to advertise the iPhone, promising "the wait is almost over."
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Germany's biggest Apple   retailer is getting 1,000 enquiries every day about buying the  new iPhone, which is expected to go on sale towards the end of  the year, the retailer's head told a newspaper.