Champagne and caviar never seems as modest as they ever worth, as the world celebrate the glorious launch of iPhone 3G, kicking off an early weekend. Very early indeed, it was 4:30; I woke up from some fragmented dreams, laying restlessly on my bed.
Since I live in a small town where 90% of people don’t even know what the hell an iPhone is, the population who would aware of a revision of such product should be very slim. So, my plan was to arrive at the AT&T store at 6:00, which I predicted there, would be five persons on site.
However, since I was awake, and I knew for a fact that it would be impossible to force myself back into sleep, I decided to head out early. Changing cloths, grapping my pre-packed leather bag, then I was off, beginning my 30-minute journey to the closet AT&T store that carries the new iPhone at launch.
At 5:15, I parked in front of the AT&T store; amazingly, there really were only 5 people in line. But I was an hour early, so I guess my calculation cannot count after all.
Waiting in line for a product in such immense caliber is actually fun. Everybody shared their excitement about the launch, everybody pulled out their old phone and talk trash about their phones. Meanwhile, I also found out the person at the front of the line arrived just an hour before me.
To fill in the downtime of exciting chi-chatting, I prepared myself with the Top Gear Africa special aired during last season on my PSP; among with the usually suspects, iPod, book, and sketch book.
Sitting against cold store-front glazing on a cool summer morning, the sun slowing creep above the horizon. It was remotely romantic, really. Like being at the beach, except, a sea of automobile filled my peripheral.
No one show up since my arrival until 6:10 (so, if in fact I arrived at 6:00, I would still be the 6th person I line, cranky, huh?) But people soon started pouring in, the number of people in line growth exponentially to 25 by 7:00. My new friend at the spot in front of me spooked from the store manager a day ahead, knowing that there would only be 40 iPhone 3G in stock; that number had already exceeded by 7:45, but the staffs/crowd-controls were not allowed to inform customers in line of its quota.
Sadly, there was no count down prior to open; as soon as the store open, the first 11 people in line (of course, including me) were invited to enter the store. The whole place suddenly transformed into a stock market, people started calling out runner to the stock room, information are being exchanged for the activation process.
Without any doubt, delays and technical difficulty was expected… I mean, seriously, the whole damn east cost is activating iPhones at the same time. The data line at AT&T instantly crippled, in store staff begin to panic. Luckily, a very chill and delighted employee, who tried hard to work around the system, served me during activation.
Even though, I was the 6th person in line, but at 8:40, I became the first person with a fully functional iPhone 3G, walking out from the store front in complete holy glory, applauded by the remaining 40+ crowd.
“woooh!!!! Good luck guys!” I waved as I was walking toward my vehicle.
However, I never understood how luck I was until later on that day (after I played with my iPhone for hours) when I turn on the news, learning that only a fraction of people who actually left the store with a working iPhone.
It really was quiet an experience, from the day before the launch tweeting all day online, to become the first person walking out the store yesterday morning, the iPhone 3G launch left me a memory that is inerasable, and of course, the greatest product since the invention of the Concorde supersonic jetliner.
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