Some Random Musings in the iPhone Line
“You know, if traditional marketing were as effective as everyone thinks,” I told the five complete strangers within earshot, “I would give up my iPhone for a cute little top right about now.”
All of us chuckled. We’d been in line for an iPhone at the Domain’s Apple Store for well over an hour. Our place in line started at Martin + Osa but quickly moved to Victoria’s Secret, where we’d stalled for most of that time. We’d been chatting about 8GB versus 16GB, was it really worth getting GPS when the cell tower triangulation was pretty good, et cetera et cetera.
Between geekly ruminations, we’d been assaulted with visions of mannequins wearing scanty unmentionables in a vast array of garish colors. What a waste, I thought. A lot of these stores in the Domain could have capitalized big time. There were folks stuck in that line (as Hope and I were) for six or seven hours. They could have really put on a show. I mean, not that there was room for a catwalk for Victoria’s Secret models, but they could have been….nice to us. Geeks have significant others too, you know!
Okay, maybe they could have just propped the doors open so we’d get some air conditioning!
Back to planet Earth. I mean, think about it: California Pizza Kitchen could have sent someone around with pizza slice samples, then taken orders. Starbucks could have sent out a barista (they did, in all fairness, keep sending out jugs of water to replenish our sun-baked bodies). The little ice cream parlor would have made a killing in the gelato trade that sunny day. The possibilities were endless.
By all estimations, this one Apple Store sold 2000 or so iPhones, most of them of the 16GB variety (about $300 a pop), so they probably hauled in $500,000. They probably also sold a boatload of other stuff too–I saw folks walking out with MobileMe CDs and other Mac products, especially iPhone covers (to protect the new investment). So they easily cleared a million smackeroos on Friday.
Eventually (around 8pm) we made it inside the store. Hope and I kept standing in line for each other. Mostly it was me doing those crazy life things, like going home to take the dogs out, getting pizza, and so on. At the end of the day, our backs and legs didn’t give out, and shortly before 11pm, Hope had a shiny new iPhone 3G.
Me? I didn’t get one. I’ll wait a few weeks. I did however upgrade my iPhone to the 2.0 software, downloaded the SDK, and attended my first iPhone Developers meeting the very next day, and we planned out the preliminary agenda for an iPhone Developers Camp here in Austin for August….so my iPhone geek credentials are still intact.
P.S. For those of you who don’t know the meaning of love, yes, standing in line for six hours (off an on) so that the woman you love can get an iPhone…that’s love.
