The great iPhone hunt of 2007

http://tech.msn.com/products/article...3198&GT1=10138

The great iPhone hunt of 2007
By Anne Broache, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently gave free advice to a columnist asking how to
get an iPhone when they go on sale: head to an AT&T store, Jobs suggested,
rather than Apple's own retail outlets.

A CNET News.com survey of 75 Apple and AT&T stores indicates that may be a
wise approach.

Not one Apple store contacted offered would-be iPhone buyers the chance to
get on a waiting list, but some AT&T stores and retailers did. The catch:
not all stores that sell AT&T phones expect to be selling the iPhone on
June 29, and some that will expressed concern about receiving sufficient
quantities of the highly anticipated device.

An AT&T-owned store in Times Square in midtown Manhattan, for instance,
said that about 100 people had been placed on a waiting list. When asked
whether being on that list guarantees priority for buying an iPhone, a
store employee replied, "It depends how accessible you make yourself. I'm
going to call you. If you're here, you'll get it."

One open question is whether AT&T/Cingular franchises and resellers will
ever be selling the iPhone. (Because exclusive Cingular agents have signs
and decor that looked just like company-owned stores, it hasn't been easy
to tell them apart. But as of a few weeks ago, locally owned stores are now
called AT&T authorized retailers and are labeled as such in the company's
online directory.)

AT&T spokesman John Kampfe initially denied on Tuesday that any franchises
or resellers would receive iPhones. "The iPhone will be available in all
AT&T-owned retail stores nationwide, which number about 1,800. Again it
will be sold only in AT&T-owned retail stores, Apple retail stores and
through Apple's online store," Kampfe said in an e-mail interview.

But in the News.com survey, some franchises have said the opposite: that
they expect to supply customers with iPhones starting June 29. Others,
however, have said they're not getting the product at all; some say they're
unsure whether they'll stock them; and some said that if they did, the
phones would likely not arrive until at least July.

A Manhattan AT&T franchise on Third Avenue said on Tuesday that it's also
expecting the phone on June 29 but did not have a waiting list. In Miami,
an employee at an AT&T franchise on Dixie Highway said she had 16 people on
a waiting list for the 15 phones expected in the first shipment and would
continue taking names for the next batch of 15 phones. Those are expected
to arrive two weeks later.

In a follow-up conversation, AT&T's Kampfe indicated that franchises might
be able to start selling phones after June 29. "We haven't disclosed what
we're doing beyond the 29th," he said. "That's not to say we are going to
make them available, but as of the 29th, it is only going to be in
AT&T-owned stores, Apple stores, and Apple online."

Some other tidbits that surfaced in the survey:

• When asked whether it was possible to get on a waiting list or preorder
the iPhone, many AT&T store representatives cited an internal company
memorandum barring both practices. But AT&T's Kampfe said he could not
confirm or comment on the existence of such a policy. "Our policy is that
it is going to be sold on the day--no advance sales or anything of that
nature," he told CNET News.com in a phone interview.

• In San Francisco, an AT&T franchise store on Chestnut Street said it had
assembled a waiting list of sorts, but "maxed out" about two weeks ago and
would no longer be adding names to the list. That store said it expected to
receive about 30 iPhones, but most likely not until at least a few days
after the projected launch date. Five more stores in San Francisco, most of
them AT&T-owned, said they weren't taking preorders or starting waiting
lists, as did the downtown Apple store. Another franchise on Kearny Street
said it wasn't stocking the phone at all.

• Two stores in the Los Angeles area, which appeared from their directory
listing to be AT&T-owned, said they were taking down names for an informal
waiting list, but they couldn't guarantee that those on the list would
actually get their hands on the first crop of phones. (Three other area
stores, however, declined such requests at all.)

• Very few employees at AT&T or Apple stores had the faintest idea how many
phones their stores will stock, with many of them blaming that lack of
information on secrecy from the corporate powers at Apple.

• But some were more optimistic than others about the quantities. A Miami
Beach Apple store employee enthusiastically predicted that there would be
"enough" for everyone who wanted one, while an Apple store employee in
Cambridge, Mass., said she'd heard "good numbers" of iPhones would be
available at her location. A Salt Lake City Apple store employee, for his
part, couldn't be more specific than "a bunch." Estimates by some AT&T
store employees were more conservative, however. Employees at company-owned
stores in downtown San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., admitted they were
expecting only a "limited" number, at least at first.

• The cube-shaped Apple store on New York's Fifth Avenue may be open for
business 24 hours a day, but a representative who answered the phone
chuckled (knowingly?) when asked whether that location would begin selling
the phones at midnight on June 29. Apple hasn't told the store anything
about that, she said.

• At Apple's Salt Lake City outpost, an employee said he had heard buzz
about a midnight launch party, but knew only one thing for certain: come
June 29, there was sure to be a line going out the door. Almost every
customer that walks into the store asks about the iPhone, he said.

• An Omaha, Neb., Apple store employee said he fully expected to see people
camping outside before the launch, while a Portland, Ore. employee actually
advised doing so: "I recommend pitching a tent," he said, perhaps only half
kidding.


Tips for landing an iPhone

• Log on to Apple's Web-based store on June 29. The phone is set to go on
sale at 6 p.m. that day, Jobs announced. Sign up for updates here. But
forget trying AT&T's e-commerce site; the company says it won't be selling
iPhones online, at least initially.

• Call a few local AT&T stores and see if you can get on their waiting
lists or if your local sales representative has any tips about how that
particular store is handling requests. Most will tell you it's all
first-come, first-served, but practices appear to vary widely.

• Show up early at an Apple store or company-owned AT&T store before they
open on June 29. Most stores say they will be keeping normal hours that
day, although midnight parties at Apple stores don't appear to be
completely ruled out. The big question is how many phones each store will
stock.

• Wait until the June 29 mania dies down and hope that AT&T and Apple
decide to allow locally owned AT&T franchises and resellers to carry the
product as well. More locations should mean more units--and shorter lines.

---

› See More: The great iPhone hunt of 2007

If someone told me in 1977 that in 2007 people would wait in line to buy
a telephone I would have told them your crazy.


Lex wrote:
> http://tech.msn.com/products/article...3198&GT1=10138
>
> The great iPhone hunt of 2007
> By Anne Broache, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
>
> Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently gave free advice to a columnist asking how to
> get an iPhone when they go on sale: head to an AT&T store, Jobs suggested,
> rather than Apple's own retail outlets.
>
> A CNET News.com survey of 75 Apple and AT&T stores indicates that may be a
> wise approach.
>
> Not one Apple store contacted offered would-be iPhone buyers the chance to
> get on a waiting list, but some AT&T stores and retailers did. The catch:
> not all stores that sell AT&T phones expect to be selling the iPhone on
> June 29, and some that will expressed concern about receiving sufficient
> quantities of the highly anticipated device.
>
> An AT&T-owned store in Times Square in midtown Manhattan, for instance,
> said that about 100 people had been placed on a waiting list. When asked
> whether being on that list guarantees priority for buying an iPhone, a
> store employee replied, "It depends how accessible you make yourself. I'm
> going to call you. If you're here, you'll get it."
>
> One open question is whether AT&T/Cingular franchises and resellers will
> ever be selling the iPhone. (Because exclusive Cingular agents have signs
> and decor that looked just like company-owned stores, it hasn't been easy
> to tell them apart. But as of a few weeks ago, locally owned stores are now
> called AT&T authorized retailers and are labeled as such in the company's
> online directory.)
>
> AT&T spokesman John Kampfe initially denied on Tuesday that any franchises
> or resellers would receive iPhones. "The iPhone will be available in all
> AT&T-owned retail stores nationwide, which number about 1,800. Again it
> will be sold only in AT&T-owned retail stores, Apple retail stores and
> through Apple's online store," Kampfe said in an e-mail interview.
>
> But in the News.com survey, some franchises have said the opposite: that
> they expect to supply customers with iPhones starting June 29. Others,
> however, have said they're not getting the product at all; some say they're
> unsure whether they'll stock them; and some said that if they did, the
> phones would likely not arrive until at least July.
>
> A Manhattan AT&T franchise on Third Avenue said on Tuesday that it's also
> expecting the phone on June 29 but did not have a waiting list. In Miami,
> an employee at an AT&T franchise on Dixie Highway said she had 16 people on
> a waiting list for the 15 phones expected in the first shipment and would
> continue taking names for the next batch of 15 phones. Those are expected
> to arrive two weeks later.
>
> In a follow-up conversation, AT&T's Kampfe indicated that franchises might
> be able to start selling phones after June 29. "We haven't disclosed what
> we're doing beyond the 29th," he said. "That's not to say we are going to
> make them available, but as of the 29th, it is only going to be in
> AT&T-owned stores, Apple stores, and Apple online."
>
> Some other tidbits that surfaced in the survey:
>
> • When asked whether it was possible to get on a waiting list or preorder
> the iPhone, many AT&T store representatives cited an internal company
> memorandum barring both practices. But AT&T's Kampfe said he could not
> confirm or comment on the existence of such a policy. "Our policy is that
> it is going to be sold on the day--no advance sales or anything of that
> nature," he told CNET News.com in a phone interview.
>
> • In San Francisco, an AT&T franchise store on Chestnut Street said it had
> assembled a waiting list of sorts, but "maxed out" about two weeks ago and
> would no longer be adding names to the list. That store said it expected to
> receive about 30 iPhones, but most likely not until at least a few days
> after the projected launch date. Five more stores in San Francisco, most of
> them AT&T-owned, said they weren't taking preorders or starting waiting
> lists, as did the downtown Apple store. Another franchise on Kearny Street
> said it wasn't stocking the phone at all.
>
> • Two stores in the Los Angeles area, which appeared from their directory
> listing to be AT&T-owned, said they were taking down names for an informal
> waiting list, but they couldn't guarantee that those on the list would
> actually get their hands on the first crop of phones. (Three other area
> stores, however, declined such requests at all.)
>
> • Very few employees at AT&T or Apple stores had the faintest idea how many
> phones their stores will stock, with many of them blaming that lack of
> information on secrecy from the corporate powers at Apple.
>
> • But some were more optimistic than others about the quantities. A Miami
> Beach Apple store employee enthusiastically predicted that there would be
> "enough" for everyone who wanted one, while an Apple store employee in
> Cambridge, Mass., said she'd heard "good numbers" of iPhones would be
> available at her location. A Salt Lake City Apple store employee, for his
> part, couldn't be more specific than "a bunch." Estimates by some AT&T
> store employees were more conservative, however. Employees at company-owned
> stores in downtown San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., admitted they were
> expecting only a "limited" number, at least at first.
>
> • The cube-shaped Apple store on New York's Fifth Avenue may be open for
> business 24 hours a day, but a representative who answered the phone
> chuckled (knowingly?) when asked whether that location would begin selling
> the phones at midnight on June 29. Apple hasn't told the store anything
> about that, she said.
>
> • At Apple's Salt Lake City outpost, an employee said he had heard buzz
> about a midnight launch party, but knew only one thing for certain: come
> June 29, there was sure to be a line going out the door. Almost every
> customer that walks into the store asks about the iPhone, he said.
>
> • An Omaha, Neb., Apple store employee said he fully expected to see people
> camping outside before the launch, while a Portland, Ore. employee actually
> advised doing so: "I recommend pitching a tent," he said, perhaps only half
> kidding.
>
>
> Tips for landing an iPhone
>
> • Log on to Apple's Web-based store on June 29. The phone is set to go on
> sale at 6 p.m. that day, Jobs announced. Sign up for updates here. But
> forget trying AT&T's e-commerce site; the company says it won't be selling
> iPhones online, at least initially.
>
> • Call a few local AT&T stores and see if you can get on their waiting
> lists or if your local sales representative has any tips about how that
> particular store is handling requests. Most will tell you it's all
> first-come, first-served, but practices appear to vary widely.
>
> • Show up early at an Apple store or company-owned AT&T store before they
> open on June 29. Most stores say they will be keeping normal hours that
> day, although midnight parties at Apple stores don't appear to be
> completely ruled out. The big question is how many phones each store will
> stock.
>
> • Wait until the June 29 mania dies down and hope that AT&T and Apple
> decide to allow locally owned AT&T franchises and resellers to carry the
> product as well. More locations should mean more units--and shorter lines.
>
>
>
>

Jeanette <[email protected]> writes:

> If someone told me in 1977 that in 2007 people would wait in line to
> buy a telephone I would have told them your crazy.

Why would you tell them that Lex was crazy? (Assuming you meant "you're").

[email protected] (Lex) wrote in news:HNKWEFW739249.4217592593
@anonymous.poster:

> Tips for landing an iPhone
>

People have just GOT to be NUTS! There's no other way to explain their
stupidity being lead around like dogs on a leash....by the ad hypers.

I just hope the iphone doesn't suck as bad as the ipod does, and always
has.....

Larry
--
How silly......

Larry <[email protected]> writes:

> I just hope the iphone doesn't suck as bad as the ipod does,
> and always has.....


Yeah, it's got to suck, considering how many of them have been
sold.

What I don't understand about the whole iPod/Walkman/Discman
phenomenon is why so many people feel the need to listen to
music so much of the time. Personally, I find music distrac-
ting when I'm trying to concentrate on something else. And
even when I'm not concentrating on anything in particular, I'm
usually quite content just to think.



Geoff

--
"Hell has no fury like a pacifist." -- Pete Stickney

On 6/16/07 3:03 PM, in article [email protected],
"William Michael Greene" <[email protected]> wrote:

> iPod sucks?
>
> Strange!
>
>
Some folks see a green sky...

Elmo P. Shagnasty <[email protected]> writes:

[iPods]

: Yeah, it's got to suck, considering how many of them have been
: sold.

> Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it makes sense.


Its making sense or not isn't the point. Its not sucking is the point.

What better evidence of a consumer product's not sucking could there
possibly be than the fact that a ****load of them have been sold?

And why _would_ the iPod suck, exactly? What is it that you don't
like?



Geoff

--
"Hell has no fury like a pacifist." -- Pete Stickney

Geoff Miller wrote:
> Larry <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> I just hope the iphone doesn't suck as bad as the ipod does,
>> and always has.....
>
>
> Yeah, it's got to suck, considering how many of them have been
> sold.
>
> What I don't understand about the whole iPod/Walkman/Discman
> phenomenon is why so many people feel the need to listen to
> music so much of the time. Personally, I find music distrac-
> ting when I'm trying to concentrate on something else. And
> even when I'm not concentrating on anything in particular, I'm
> usually quite content just to think.
>
>
>
I also shake my head at that. I also don't understand the need to get on
your growling quad and race through the forest to "enjoy nature".

In news:[email protected] [email protected] (Geoff
Miller) wrote:

> What I don't understand about the whole iPod/Walkman/Discman
> phenomenon is why so many people feel the need to listen to
> music so much of the time.

Since this is cross-posted to a couple of cellphone-related newsgroups,
I guess it's OK for me to express my curiosity about why so many
people feel the need to be on the phone talking to somebody so much of
the time.

Kids I can understand; hanging on the landline phone was common long
before the advent of the cellphone.

Adults however, they're a different story, aren't they?

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN [email protected]

Elmo P. Shagnasty <[email protected]> writes:

: Its making sense or not isn't the point. Its not sucking is the point.

> OK...just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it doesn't
> suck.


Of course it does. Consumer products that suck don't sell in vast
numbers like iPods do.

And you never did tell me *why* you insist that iPods suck.



Geoff

--
"Hell has no fury like a pacifist." -- Pete Stickney

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:25:56 +0000, Geoff Miller wrote:

>
>
> Larry <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> I just hope the iphone doesn't suck as bad as the ipod does,
>> and always has.....
>
>
> Yeah, it's got to suck, considering how many of them have been
> sold.

I certainly don't think the iPod sucks. They're extremely well-designed
items, very attractive physically, and easy to use. My brother just bought
himself a video iPod. But my own preference is the Archos series of media
players. They're not as pretty, and the controls are somewhat clunky, but
they're great players.

>
> What I don't understand about the whole iPod/Walkman/Discman
> phenomenon is why so many people feel the need to listen to
> music so much of the time. Personally, I find music distrac-
> ting when I'm trying to concentrate on something else. And
> even when I'm not concentrating on anything in particular, I'm
> usually quite content just to think.

Depending on circumstance, I find music helps the thought process. As I
don't drive, I travel on buses a fair bit, and the combination of riding
the bus and listening to music really helps my imagination to flow freely.

Other times, I just like to listen to the world go by. It depends on mood.
Riding in a car, for instance, seems to demand music (usually rock or
metal of some sort.

But as you say, not everyone likes to have a soundtrack in their daily
lives. Maybe it's something to do with watching so many films and TV
shows where all the action takes place to a thumping beat; perhaps we've
subconsciously come to believe that's how life should be too.

(follow-ups set to COLA, as I don't read the other groups)

--
Kier

Elmo P. Shagnasty <[email protected]> writes:

: What better evidence of a consumer product's not sucking could there
: possibly be than the fact that a ****load of them have been sold?

> Microsoft Windows.

> 'Nuff said.


Not so fast.

Windows works just fine for most people most of the time. That's
why it sells as well as it does, and it's why it doesn't suck.
Not that there aren't better O/S's out there. But do Chevies suck
because they aren't Lexuses? Of course not. They and their
equivalents are perfectly satisfactory for most people most of the
time, and are cost-effective in the bargain.

I'm using Windows XP Home Edition right now, in fact, and I'm quite
happy with it. I also run XP Professioal on my company-provided
laptop; it also works more than adequately well. And being a UNIX
system administrator, I do have a basis for comparison.



Geoff

--
"Hell has no fury like a pacifist." -- Pete Stickney

Geoff Miller wrote:
> Larry <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> I just hope the iphone doesn't suck as bad as the ipod does,
>> and always has.....
>
>
> Yeah, it's got to suck, considering how many of them have been
> sold.
>
> What I don't understand about the whole iPod/Walkman/Discman
> phenomenon is why so many people feel the need to listen to
> music so much of the time. Personally, I find music distrac-
> ting when I'm trying to concentrate on something else. And
> even when I'm not concentrating on anything in particular, I'm
> usually quite content just to think.

I'm with you, but what *really* kills me is people requesting
different screen savers for their cell phones... Does it get
*any* more mindless!!! <g>

--
Notan

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:11:06 -0400, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] (Geoff Miller) wrote:
>
>> > Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it makes sense.
>>
>>
>> Its making sense or not isn't the point. Its not sucking is the point.
>>
>> What better evidence of a consumer product's not sucking could there
>> possibly be than the fact that a ****load of them have been sold?
>
> Microsoft Windows.
>
> 'Nuff said.

The iPod is hardware, though, not software.

--
Kier

Justin <[email protected]> writes:

> To keep other noises out, to keep entertained going to and from
> locations, to listen to things beside music. Look at the podcast
> community.


Admittedly, podcasts are something that intrgues me more and more.



Geoff

--
"Hell has no fury like a pacifist." -- Pete Stickney