iPhone 3G In the House!!

After sitting out the first wave of iPhone mania and thanks to the great donations by Kim and Co, Coco Bean, and even Wayne’s World, I finally succumbed and joined the iPhone family.

I headed to the Windward AT&T store on Friday morning after dropping off the van for servicing right across the street. At 7am, there was already a long line. Someone counted and said we were in the 60s. AT&T employees, Drake and John, came by and explained the “rules” – seven employees working in the store, limited number of customers allowed in, about 15 minutes per transaction. Then the waiting began…

It started to drizzle, but the line was under covering. Drake came by with water a few times but wouldn’t reveal how many iPhones were available citing the information was proprietary to AT&T. Finally he did come around and counted people notifying some towards the back of the line that their odds of getting an iPhone were poor.

The 16-gig models ran out first, black then white. When my spot in line came near the store, security told the line it had to move away from the other store entrances. We moved out from the shaded covering into the hot sun. And let me say business at the other stores was slow anyways, so why make everyone uncomfortable for the business that is doing a lot of business?

Anyways after three hours in line, I got to the front where John did the pre-purchase work filling out forms with service plan, accessories, etc. He got me to go higher on everything, but at the cashier’s desk, I was able to scale back my bill. And hey, there is a 15% federal discount on monthly bills (not on the cost of the iPhone).

At long last, here it is.

There was no way I was going to one of the Apple Stores for this iPhone release. I figured it would be a madhouse. And it was according to Ryan’s pictures.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, iPhone