I have my new iPhone 4 and boy is this thing pretty! It is Christmas in July and I’m still riding the high of my first Apple launch day experience.
I have been slightly obsessed with the newest iPhone for about a year. My first smartphone, the BlackBerry Curve 8320 has been on it’s last legs for about six months. It felt outdated over a year ago. The mobile landscape is way different than it was two and a half years ago when I bought my BlackBerry. As the years went by, people started to develop more for the iPhone and practically ignored BlackBerry. This is the main reason that I bought an iPhone. I want the one gadget that does a little bit of everything.
After reading about how the iPad launch day went, I wanted to be ULTRA prepared for the iPhone 4 launch day. I knew to pre-order. It was the most miserable pre-order experience ever. I hammered away at the Apple site on June 15th for 8 hours until I managed a reservation. I heard horror stories about the notoriously LONG lines on launch day so I planned out everything. I made sure I went to bed at 9 p.m. last night so that I could wake up at 3 a.m. to be in line at the Houston Galleria Apple Store by 5 a.m. I packed a big purse with a couple of snacks, water, Harry Potter book, fashion magazine and Tylenol. I ended up waking at 1:30 a.m. I was tempted to go into the mall at 4 a.m. but I read on a forum that security wasn’t letting anyone in before 5 a.m. If I had gone in at 4 a.m., I would have been first in line because the first guy in line got there at 4:50 a.m.! At 5 a.m., the reservation line was at least 50 people deep and the walk-in line had at least 300 people! I met some wacky but nice folks in line. People were congratulating me on my first iPhone purchase. The people that already owned iPhones were giving tutorials. It was a chipper, social bunch for 5 a.m.
There was some construction that required loud drilling through the floor in front of the Starbucks downstairs so we had to yell at each other just to talk. Also, it was super hot in the mall for some reason.
Breakfast which consisted of croissants, muffins, banana bread, coffee, orange juice and APPLE juice was provided for free by the Westin Hotel. I had a croissant and APPLE juice. :) When the Apple employees started talking about opening the store everyone started “woohooing” and “awwwyeahing”. They dropped the curtain in front of the store and the reserve line started moving fast! I feel bad for the walk-ins, they were letting 1 of them for every 30 of us in the reserved line. There had to be almost 2000 people in line when I left the store. I was about 50th in line, the store opened at 7 a.m. and I was out of there at 7:25 a.m. and home by 7:40 a.m.! Talk about service!
When I walked out of the Apple Store with my new phone in hand, I got an applause. I thought I’d think it was cheesy but I kinda liked it. You should have seen my goofy grin. The whole experience was pretty painless and now I’m feeling really great and excited about this purchase. I’m now stroking the phone like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. (myyyy preciousssss) I hope my hair doesn’t fall out.
I played with the phone for a little bit but took some time out to let you all know how launch day was going here in Houston so far. Now, I’m getting ready to hunker down and figure out how everything works. See you guys on Twitter later. (@fancyfembot)
#iphone4 #houphone
I LOLd about the “myyyy preciousssss” :D
If you substitute “Palm” for “Blackberry” in the first paragraph, then you know how I feel about my phone right now. I’ve been a Palm user for several years: first PDAs, then a Treo, and now the Centro. I’ve seen the decline in free games and stuff for Palm devices and I have been jealous of my acquaintances who have iPhones and Droids. It is actually ruining my reputation as a geek; around here, people either don’t have a computer or barely know how to use the one they have, so you are nothing if you don’t have the latest phone. I can’t wait until I get my EVO!