Apple's iPhone to hit stores, lines grow
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Hundreds of gadget fans, or their paid stand-ins, lined up on Friday to be among 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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There's more to gain than lose from the upcoming iPhone.
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Apple hit its target for iPhone shipments a few weeks ahead of schedule, and one analyst thinks the price cut accounted for more than 100,000 sales last week and into the weekend.
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Apple Inc.  said on Tuesday  its hotly anticipated iPhone could cost up to $3,000 with a  required two-year service contract, but that didn't stop a  handful of admirers from starting to wait to buy the device.
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Thousands of U.S. gadget  fans made an orderly pilgrimage to stores on Friday to be among  the first buyers of Apple's iPhone, a music- and video-playing  device expected to reshape the mobile industry.
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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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Apple Inc.'s iPhone won't hit stores until Friday, but the heavily hyped gadget already has unleashed a cottage industry of touch-screen protectors, leather hip carriers and car adapters.
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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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Apple Inc.'s iPhone hits store shelves on Friday in a consumer spectacle that has whipped gadget fans into a frenzy over a device that challenges business as usual in the mobile phone industry.
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Major handset vendors have much more  to gain than to lose from the buzz Apple Inc&#39;s  coveted  iPhone will create when it arrives in European stores for the  key shopping season ahead of Christmas.
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(InfoWorld) - The number of iPhones manufactured by Apple may not be enough to meet customer demand when the smart phone goes on sale later Friday, CEO Steve Jobs said in an interview published the same day. "We had to make our best guess as to what the demand was going to be and what supply we were going to put in place many, many months ago. We built factories to build these things and everything. We've taken our best guess but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough," Jobs told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. The iPhone, which combines the functions of an iPod with a smart phone, goes on sale in the U.S. at 6 p.m. and is one of the most anticipated gadgets in recent years. Two models will offered, the 4GB model costs $499 and the 8GB model is priced at $599. Users also have toÂ sign a two-year contractÂ with carrier AT&T. The cost of those plans range from $59.99 per month to $99.99 per month. Some prospective buyers have beenÂ camping outside storesÂ in hope of being among the first to own one of the new smart phones. A surge in demand for the iPhones could mean the devices are hard to come by at first, depending on the number that Apple and AT&T have in stock. A shortage of iPhones would not be unusual. Vendors often have a limited number of units to sell when a new product hits the market. In the case of products where demand is particularly high, such as for new game consoles, limited product availability -- whether intentional or not -- andÂ long lines outside storesÂ help build buzz and generate media coverage. Jobs also downplayed concerns over the iPhone's dependence on AT&T's EDGE network, which is slower than 3G (third-generation) networks. "You know every (AT&T) Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. It turns out EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed isâ¦on a Web browser. It's good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That's where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network," Jobs told the Wall Street Journal. He said the iPhone had been designed to switch to Wi-Fi when such networks are detected. Â
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With under six hours to go, some people in line for the iPhone in New York are seeing if they could make a few bucks off the product hype by selling their places in line. As far as I can tell, there have not yet been any takers. From Crave, CNET's gadgets blog.
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The line at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan began to form on Monday night for people wanting to be the first to buy an iPhone Friday evening.
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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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- Apple Inc.  starts selling on Friday  the iPhone, which combines a wireless phone with music and  video-playing capabilities and Web browsing. The device is one  of the most highly anticipated U.S. product introductions of  the year.
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SAN ANTONIO - Customers clamoring to get their hands on Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone better make sure they're at the right store.  The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web device will only be sold at stores owned by Apple Inc.