iPhone sellers open doors, greeted by cheers
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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 expected to reshape the mobile industry.
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Customers lined up in droves, some for days, but plenty of the phones are still available for the taking.Photos: Big Apple gets the iPhone
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Apple launched its new iPhone in US retail stores Friday to brisk demand as some New Yorkers lined up to get their hands on the latest offering from the computer and gadget maker which packs a cell phone, music player and web browser.
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Thousands of U.S. gadget  fans flocked to stores on Friday to be the first buyers of  Apple's iPhone, a music-playing and Web-browsing device  expected to shake up the mobile industry.
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Some of those in line for the much-coveted Apple handset are doing so to put the device on eBay and donate the proceeds to charity.
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They started arriving at 8:15 last night, and by mid-morning today, about 30 iPhone hunters had lined up outside the Apple store in Clarendon.
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Writing for USA Today, Edward Baig finds iPhone âindeed worth lusting after.â Apple, he says, âhas delivered a prodigyâa slender fashion phone, a slick iPod, and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset.â âThe most chic cellphone Iâve seen,â iPhone is âa breeze to set up and fun to use, evident from the moment you slide your finger across the screen to unlock it. Itâs a wonderful widescreen iPod and fabulous picture viewer.â And he tells us that âmaking calls was surprisingly simple. You can flick through your list of contacts or favorites â¦ and then tap on a name to make a call or send a text message. The keys of the virtual keypad are large enough so that dialing a number manually â or punching in a code to access voice mail remotely â is easy. I rarely made a mistake.â He awards iPhone 3.5 stars out of 4.
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Early iPhone owners are overwhelmingly happy with their devices, a survey out today says, and Apple and AT&amp;T are luring customers from rivals as a result.
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Third-party ringtone creators for the iPhone believe there's a viable market for their software.
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SurveyU reports that college student interest in the iPhone has dramatically risen following Apple's price drop.
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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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A license with the iPhone maker improves outlook.
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AT&T, which is the sole supplier of cellphone service on the Apple iPhone, is clearly benefiting from the deviceâs strong sales.
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(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.
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Proud owners of Apple Inc.'s   iPhone raved about their first day with the device on  Saturday, but a glitch took the shine off the year's most  anticipated device for a few unlucky customers.
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Some Wall Street analysts say that Apple might have sold as many as 700,000 iPhones over the device's opening weekend.
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Many think of Apple as a skilled marketer, and if there were any questions about that ability, the iPhone launch certainly answered them as consumers waited in line for hours, if not days, to get their hands on the new wireless device.