Apple's iPhone to hit stores, lines grow
112423
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.
267613
Blog: Apple and AT&#38;T stores have started advertising the iPhone, promising "the wait is almost over."
535570
InfoWorld - With the hype surrounding&#160;the iPhone&#160;reaching critical mass on June 29 in the U.S., Apple wants to ensure third-party vendors sell accessories engineered to work properly with its multimedia cellphone.
675453
Opening weekend sales of iPhones may have reached 500,000, according to an analyst's estimate, as Apple's much anticipated product saw sales that lived up to and even exceeded its hype.
466863
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.
406029
Major handset vendors have much more to gain than to lose from the buzz Apple Inc's coveted iPhone will create when it arrives in European stores for the key shopping season ahead of Christmas.
544624
(InfoWorld) - Apple began selling its iPhone Friday, ending six months of waiting by consumers and rival smartphone vendors. Store managers at AT&T retail shops and Apple's own stores are throwing open their doors at 6 p.m. in each U.S. time zone, having closed the shops several hours earlier in an attempt to control expected crowds. At the Apple store in the SoHo section of New York, there was a carnival atmosphere throughout the afternoon, which built to a climax with a crowd of hundreds counting down from five, right before 6 p.m. In the last hour before doors opened, a man was even heard selling spots close to the front of the line to those who were closest to the back. Amid whoops and hollers, movie director Spike Lee was the first to walk into the store, saying he was there for charity. A Brooklyn, New York-based charity called Keep a Child Alive grabbed first place in line earlier in the week, using its position to publicize its plans to auction an iPhone on eBay and use the money for charity. "They asked me to be a part of it," Lee said. He noted that the charity did the "hard part" waiting in line all week in front of the store and said he felt lucky to be part of the effort. Actress Whoopi Goldberg was second in line. When asked what she was doing there, she commented on the media crowding around her, saying "I don't really know at this point." When asked whether she was going to buy a phone, she said yes. About 10 minutes before the doors opened, an Apple employee came out with instructions and tips for the crowd. He said people could buy up to two phones each and encouraged people to buy iPhones before shopping for accessories. By morning, the line outside the SoHo store stretched for three blocks. Some enthusiasts were napping in folding chairs while others talked on the phone or to each other as they waited. Temperatures had dipped nearly 20 degrees Fahrenheit since Tuesday, and though the skies threatened rain, the weather provided a more comfortable atmosphere for iPhone enthusiasts than the summer heat that assaulted them earlier in the week. Bill Mac and Jonathan Bricklin had another way to pass the time -- they had a small ping-pong table set up as a way to promote their social networking site, The Naked PingPong Club, which encourages people to meet by playing ping-pong. Mac said he was waiting for the iPhone because it would allow the two to run their business entirely from a phone without needing a PC. "In LA [the mobile office] is about your car, in New York it's about your phone," he said. Later, Mac took a break from line to visit a local cafÃ©, Aroma, where he was overheard on his current phone telling someone about the two-iPhone limit. Meanwhile, at an AT&T store in downtown Boston, Craig Henry took a sick day from work to gain the second place in a line of 65 people. "I have a Motorola Q and a BlackBerry, but this lets me get rid of the phones and the iPod," Henry said. "I'll sell it (the iPod) to you if you want." Apple has prepared for what it calls "iDay" with the company's customary secrecy, sharing few details about the phone's internal workings or how many phones it has manufactured for the launch. The company has said it wants to sell 10 million units worldwide by 2008, but CEO Steve Jobs warned on Friday that he may not have made enough iPhones to meet demand for the launch. In fact, that goal is modest by Apple's own standards; the company sold more than 10 million iPods during the first quarter of 2007 alone. Other factors that could lead to slow sales are consumer wariness about the iPhone's battery life, the utility of its virtual keyboard, and its high price. The phone comes in a 4GB model for $499 or 8GB model for $599 and requires a two-year AT&T service plan ranging from $60 per month to $100 per month. However, Apple says the iPhone will win converts with its touchscreen interface and combined functionality of a mobile phone, iPod music player, and mobile Internet browser. The company says those features will differentiate the iPhone from other smartphones like the Motorola Q, Palm Treo, Research in Motion BlackBerry, Samsung BlackJack, Sony-Ericsson W900-series, Nokia N-series, and LG Electronics Prada. To handle the expected rush for iPhones, Apple has extended the hours in its 164 U.S. retail stores until midnight. But the majority of customers will buy the phone at one of the 1,800 AT&T retail shops, also scheduled to push their usual 8 p.m. closing time back to 10 p.m.
480980
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.
508555
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&#39;t stop a handful of  admirers from starting to wait to buy the device.
684320
Apple Inc.&#39;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.
42040
Digg.com founder cites 'solid' source Apple's upcoming iPhone will go on sale next month with two memory capacities and no ties to a specific network, it has been claimed. The 'small as s**t' handset is based on a slider form-factor, it's said - presumably to better match the iPod design ethos.â¦
536061
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.
480196
TechWeb - Apple remains confident that it can hit its target of 10 million phones shipped within its first year of sales, but financial analysts are wondering whether there's trouble brewing.
209716
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.
271005
NEW YORK -- Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29, according to TV commercials broadcast Sunday night and a company spokesman.
275590
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.
323287
With lines snaking around Apple stores and hype in overdrive, the iPhone seemed like a good investment &#151; not for keeping but for reselling.