How to Score an iPhone at Launch
OK, so pre-orders aren't happening and eBay auctions are risky (and gone now anyway). And though there may be a lot of quantity on hand when the iPhone train pulls into stores June 29, it remains to be seen just how hard it's going to be to procure one. Luckily, CNET called a bunch of AT&T stores to find out. Surprisingly it found many stores actually maintaining waiting lists, despite this being against AT&T policy per an internal company memo. Of course, these lists are informal at best, and being on one isn't a guarantee you'll have phone in hand come D-Day. So, what do you do?
- Be sure you're camped outside of an AT&T-owned store, and not a franchise or authorized retailer that may look like an AT&T-owned store. While it's not clear if franchises will be receiving shipments of the phones or not, it's a sure bet that AT&T's own stores will.
- If you're taking your chances online, log onto the Apple Web store at 6 p.m. on June 29 -- the very moment the store begins selling phones, according to Steve Jobs. AT&T will not be selling the phones online at launch.
- Wait for the hype to die down -- a second shipment of phones arrives at stores sometime in July.
- Pray.
Also, if you live near a brick-and-mortar Apple Store, you might consider camping out in front ot it (assuming it's not in a mall). For more, check out CNET's entire game day dossier.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JudyPie @ Jun 28th 2007 12:14PM
I think I'll wait and see what happens. If the second and third generation IPhone is much better and cheaper than the first, I'll feel like a real chump for going with the mad herd to get one first.