Apple fanfare swept around the world on Friday with the launch of the company's iPhone 3G. One of the first countries to get the phone was Australia and in Sydney, the line extended down the street and included what looked like nearly as much media as there were customers.
In New York a number of people turned out to snatch up the new phone, but the fanfare wasn't as big as the original phone's launch last year. At the front of the line were organic farmers hoping to seek a little publicity and set a Guiness World record for the most time spent waiting in line to buy something. They had been waiting in line a week prior to the launch. For these fanatics who wait in line for days at a time where do they go to the bathroom, how do they eat, where do they sleep? Let's turn to some Apple fans in Boston for the answer.
SOT Jordan
Jordon Michaels, green shirt, first time buyer, been waiting for 2 days
Jordan was waiting aside Francisco Visconti who was the first person in line at the Boston Apple store. He sold his first iphone in his home country of Venezuela and traveled all the way from there to buy a 3G version for himself and his mother. Arriving on Monday afternoon he wanted to make sure he was first to get the phone in the city. Last year he arrived 10 hours before the launch and was disappointed that he had to be number 32.
The Boston crowd and others missed some features, like the ability to send multimedia messages or the use of the cut and paste function. While its easy for fans to gush over the new device, there are some shortcomings. One of them is the battery life. According to Walt Mossberg who reviewed the phone for the Wall Street Journal, one time it couldn't even make it through a full day of use. Another hang up doesn't have to do with the phone at all, but rather AT&T's 3G network, which in the US has spotty coverage, even in metropolises, according to Mossberg. But when the phone is running on 3G networks, it's speeds approach those of Wifi.
Steve Jobs SOT
In London, while there weren't incredibly long lines at brick and mortar outlets, those that did get in were soon halted by technical problems with operator's O2 activation system. Apple's flagship store on Regent Street was running VMWare and Windows on Macs since O2's registration system was only compatible with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
Josh Young, 47s: "You are trying to log on. You are going through the virtual PC since it's 02's software. It just doesn't work."
A few people left the store in a huff, Josh was one of them, but vowed to return.
The iPhone 3G features a 3 and a half inch screen and runs Mac OS X. It's slightly thicker than its predecessor, but includes a standard audio headphone jack, something the previous model did not. On Friday the phone launched in 20 countries and Apple hopes to roll out the device to a total of 70 countries by the end of 2008. The 8 gig model costs 199, the 16 gig model 299.
For the IDG News Service I'm Nick Barber in Boston with reporting by Martyn Williams, Marc Ferranti, Jeremy Kirk, Lynnsey Ross and Agam Shah.
