iPhones are here!

Published by in apple, disruptive-technology on June 29th, 2007

Well, we attended our 7 year old’s performance culminating a week-long theater camp at the University of Central Oklahoma this evening, which precluded my standing in line for an iPhone at a local AT&T wireless store or our Oklahoma City Apple Store. Afterwards we drove by the closest corporate AT&T wireless store in Edmond– at 6:20 there was still a long line outside. The store had received 60 iPhones to sell, and folks in line received pieces of paper with numbers on them signifying they had an iPhone waiting for them inside. According to the people just outside the door, only about 10 people who had been standing in line were turned away.

I called the Oklahoma City Apple Store and spoke to someone there about 6:45, they still had a few iPhones left but the line of potential buyers was still way out the door. They couldn’t say how many iPhones they received until they sold out.

My cousin, Devin Henley, started standing in line at a corporate AT&T wireless store in Wichita, Kansas, at 10:30 this morning. He was 10th in line, and was able to buy an iPhone! I spoke to him around 7:00 pm and he was getting it configured on the iTunes store. I’m going to interview him over skype later this evening and will post his thoughts and review later tonight as a podcast here. The brand new Apple Store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had its grand opening today. What a great day to open an Apple store! This is a little strange… two Apple stores in Oklahoma now, but none in Kansas! According to an article in today’s Tulsa World:

Apple Inc. isn’t just arriving in Tulsa on Friday — it’s practically invading.

It’s an exciting time for Mac users, and that user base surely jumped by a BUNCH after this evening’s iPhone sales around the U.S. When I was in Anaheim last week visiting with some people from Australia, they indicated they’re not expecting to get the iPhone until the 4th quarter, and maybe as late as December. Since Australia’s 3G cellular network is more established than ours here in the U.S., I wonder if the iPhone there will be configured for 3G when it’s sold in Australia? Here in the U.S. the iPhone is accessing the Internet via EDGE technology, but reportedly the speed of the AT&T EDGE network was bumped up yesterday. Steve Jobs announced yesterday that all full-time employees of Apple will be receiving a free 8 GB iPhone. With almost 18,000 full-time employees on its rolls, that’s a significant corporate expense for an employee bonus! I think this decision by Jobs and the Apple team says a great deal about their corporate stake in the iPhone and just how significant they expect it to be. For more thoughts along these lines, see yesterday’s USA Today article “Apple, AT&T CEOs see iPhone as game-changer.”

Since I missed out on standing in line for an iPhone, I went ahead and ordered one online from the Apple Store as soon as it went online tonight at 6 pm US Pacific time. I had to click refresh a couple of times, doubtless because of all the traffic to the site, but the order went through! Unfortunately it is not supposed to ship for 2-4 weeks, but at least the order is in and I should be receiving an iPhone before the end of July. :-)

People have already asked me, “What’s so great about the iPhone, besides the fact that it’s a cell phone and iPod?” Not having used one yet, I can’t say for sure, but the web browsing capabilities are what I’m expecting to be the real standout relative to other smartphones like the Blackberry and Treo. I used a Treo for several years and liked it, but I never used the web browser much because the page rendering was so slow and poor quality. Doubtless that has improved since then, but from what I’ve seen of the iPhone’s Safari browser it looks like it will be head and shoulders above the alternatives. PC Magazine author Harry McCracken agrees with this prediction, titling his blog post for June 11th “iPhone: The Killer App is Safari.” I’m curious to hear what Devin thinks after using it firsthand!

For readers of this blog mainly interested in technology and education related issues, this discussion of the iPhone may be of most interest for significant events that happened today. For our family, however, the release of the iPhone is far overshadowed by the healthy birth of a new baby boy to my sister this evening in Manhattan, Kansas! What an amazing blessing new life is! Congrats to Trudy and Max! :-)

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On this day..

4 Comments »
  • http://blog.scottjelias.net Scott Elias

    You have my envy, Wes, even if you don’t yet have the phone!! I want one so bad, but alas I think I’ll end up waiting for version 2.0.

  • http://www.cybernaut.com/blog.html Maya Bentz

    Your enthusiasm made me want to buy iPhone! It’s sleek and cool with 3.5 color display and web browsing capabilities including YouTube. It’s very tempting! I don’t like Safari though, and a price tag is high — $499 for 4G, $599 for 8G, and $79.99 AT&T service with unlimited nights and weekends. Hmm, I don’t know!
    I’ve watched iPhone Grand Opening at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9o8WbzRzY
    A man tried to steal a Fox News microphone…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3iF4wNSc8E

  • http://jstearns.org/wp Janice Stearns

    My experience at the iPhone quest was not fruitful today. I saw that several AT&T stores were going to have some to sell, so I went to a local one that was listed on the site. Alas, it seems that the AT&T stores in our area didn’t get their shipments. I should have known when I got to the line at 4:30 with only 20 people waiting. Apparently, the manager and the help closed the store and left at 3:30, at which time they told those waiting in line that they hadn’t received a shipment. A few remained, and told us the story. They vowed to wait anyway. I went to another store and found out that they too hadn’t received any iPhones. There were about 40 people waiting in line there, for what I don’t know. I came home to order it online. A 2-4 week wait is better than constantly having to go check the stores. Going to the one Apple store that had over 500 people waiting in line was not an option. I can wait! :)

  • http://www.stager.org Gary Stager

    Friday, “iPhone Day,” I took my two nephews (8 & 10) to NYC to celebrate the 8 year-old’s birthday. I needed to be clever in duping my unwitting accomplices to hunt the wild iPhone.

    At 6 PM we walked past the flagship Apple Store on 5th Avenue. It was madness with thousands of people crowding around the cube and satelite trucks beaming reporters from around the world. People had camped out for days and the litter was everywhere. I took the boys into FAO Schwartz next door to look around (distract them). 45 minutes later we left the toy store, walked right into the Apple store and bought two 8gb iPhones.

    As you entered the cube (store entrance) a phalanx of giddy Apple employees cheered and applauded for you. The kids enjoyed that. Once inside, perhaps 100 employees asked you which phone(s) you wanted, grabbed them for you and swiped your credit card (receipt emailed), right where you stood. You could then buy iPhone accessories the same way. There were about half a dozen cases available plus screen protectors. Minutes later we ascended the spiral staircase and were once again cheered by chipper Apple boys and girls. Several people stopped me on the street to marvel at the bags I was carrying until I decided to camoflauge the hottest item in decades in a plastic bag. I spent most of the 20 block walk mocking my friends (including Roger Wagner online in SF) via SMS for having beaten them to the iPhone.

    Contrast the incredible experience, efficiency and energy of the Apple Store with this morning’s safari. I woke the boys up early (7:30) after a very night late culminating in chocolate marshmallow pizza with gummy bears, chocolate fondue, waffles with carmelized bananas and chocolate sauce, chocolate mouse with pop-rocks and chocolate ice cream at Max Brenner: Chocolate from the Bald Man on Union Square. (http://www.maxbrenner.com/) Yes, I AM uncle of the millenium!

    We went to stand in line at Nintendo World where we learned yesterday that they get a fresh shipment of Wii systems every morning at 9 AM. Apparently little old ladies are knitting them upstairs.

    We got online at 8:20 with an assortment of families buying way too much Nintendo stuff, muscle men and a personal trainer/t-shirt designer/Sarah Jessica Parker wannabee with the voice of Fran Drescher. At 9 AM the store opened and we were assured the privilege of buying a Wii system. It then took 90 minutes to check-out!!! Nobody cheered going in or going out. If it weren’t for the patience of my nephews and the hilarious conversations between 30 year old-guys and 10 year-olds about Pokemon, the experience would have been insufferable.

    Pokemon game for the Gamecube and a large stuffed Kirby was the payment required for my nephews’ efforts.

    By the way… You can check the stock of iPhones here:
    http://www.apple.com/retail/iphone/

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