Comments on: 3G iPhones at an AT&T store? Fuggedaboutit

We called 50 AT&T stores. None of them had the new phone. Apple stores fared better, but not great.

[lrf2005]

"Still, the odds are heavily in favor of Apple being able to supply iPhones to their customers on the spot. So if you really, truly must have an iPhone as soon as possible, it seems pointless to bother with AT&T. "

Unless you have to if you're on a business discount or have to perform some sort of transfer that the Apple store cannot perform. Or if you're one of the unlucky people who had their accounts flagged incorrectly with a restriction code. Seems like there are lots of situations in which some customers need to buy from the AT&T store and cannot because Apple is restricting the distribution to those store. This hurts both the customers and Apple.

[thelemurking]

Samsung Instincts are on back order and/or sold out all across the US. The Instinct broke sales records for Sprint and Best Buy... so why is there no news story about the Instinct being hard to get, or the people that have been waiting 2+ weeks for theirs to ship?

[todd_sheets]

Because nobody cares about the Instinct. Duh.

[thelemurking]

Apparently you are wrong, if they are sold out, they are on back order and it broke sales records at Sprint and Best Buy... Samsung cannot make them fast enough at the moment. So someone is buying them, which means there's a lot of people who care.

It's just Cnet is so fracking obsessed with all things Apple, they almost refuse to cover anything else.

[henebry]

As someone who isn't eager to stand in line for three hours (and that was the estimate at the only Apple store with phones in stock in the Boston area), I've resigned myself to waiting for another two weeks to a month.

[billgates97]

I waiting three hours at the apple store on michigan in chicago and got the 16gb iphone. I will never wait that long again, ever, for any product.

[bunner05]

HAHA i got mine the second day, the AT&T store near me got 160 iPhones, 80 Friday and 80 Saturday.

[Masterudia]

I think its important to realize that most of the corporate scum bags that make the decisions in regards to the matter at hand, they fail to understand what it means to be consumer. What they see is revenue, and that is the end of it. What that means for us normal goers is that you have to make a choice; you can either wait in line for an egregious amount of time, you can wait in line (more likely for a shorter amount of time) at the AT&T store and back order the iPhone, or you can wait it out entirely and let the craze die down. Honestly, if you only ideally would like to get an iPhone, and you arent necessarily addicted to the idea of waiting for hours in some line, the best options is to back order it and wait patiently.

[U. Tripps]

You're forgetting that if people are willing to wait in a long line, they'd probably be willing to pay more instead. So they get less revenue than they could have received. And, Apple and AT&T didn't supply enough of these things, and priced them lower than the previous version, and are going to lose revenue for it. Shortages mean lost revenue for the company.

Any company that's been around as long as AT&T, or is as successful as Apple has been, thinks very hard about what the consumer wants. They just don't always get it right.

[droz76]

Look at all the problems with this product... Crappy launch... crappy software launch... Mobile me sputtering to launch. And now people are reporting poor reception with the phone!!! If the reception is no good, what value is the phone at all?

I know the phone is cool but is it really worth all this?

[etiahwhite]

poor reception? In my opinion there is a definite improvement in call quality compared to my previous iPhone...with any great new thing the haters always follow with whatever negatives they can muster....honestly what did people expect when in history has there been a cell phone so hot and so wanted...never...you can only be so prepared for something so serious

[etiahwhite]

I waited 8 hrs on the first day at an apple store in Northern VA and you know I'm glad I got it over and done with...There were some bumps in the road...For instance I'm on the family plan but I'm not the primary and we do receive a corporate discount...and if your any of those apple can't sell you the phone...but to get around all that at hour 7 I had my mom come to the store and she ended up getting one too and while in the store I called at&t and had them remove the discount and after all was said and done I walked up to the at&t store in the mall and had them put the discount back on. I'm not surprised that at&t doesn't have any phones even on day one I didn't bother going to an at&t store but I'd say lucky for us in NOVA because we seem to have a steady flow of iPhones.

[TreesofMyTime]

Not what I found. I went to my local Apple store just yesterday. The sign outside said "No 3G Iphones Available Today".

While browsing around, I saw a young lady carrying the sign towards the back of the store. I asked if that meant that they were coming into stock. She said "YES".

I wallked to the store front and stood there as She returned with an "IN Stock" version of the sign. I made my purchase and left the store with my new white 16 Gig 3G, ready to pass on my origninal Iphone to a family member.

This store got its delivery around 11 AM, but I don't know if that is the usual for other stores.

[TV James]

This is all bull... Apple wants to sell a massive amount this year and you can't sell what people can't buy. This is all part of their ploy to (a) keep themselves in the media and (b) make this everyman product still seem like an Apple Exclusive So I'm Better Than You (tm) product. It rewards those who stood in line forever, it penalizes those who thought they could stroll in a day later and thumb their noses at the "losers" who stood in line. (Not calling you a loser, suggesting that's the mentality of people who thought they could buy non-line on day 2.)

This is just part of the Apple Marketing Machine.

And would people please shut up about the Instinct? It has one super-huge flaw that makes it useless to most people... it's on the Sprint Notwork.

[myles taylor]

"Samsung Instincts are on back order and/or sold out all across the US. The Instinct broke sales records for Sprint and Best Buy... so why is there no news story about the Instinct being hard to get, or the people that have been waiting 2+ weeks for theirs to ship?"

Because Samsung didn't build up the hype and anticipation that Apple did. Most of what the iPhone is is the marketing and hype behind it.

[jakeinpro]

I did not want to deal with the lines at all, so I casually wandered into an AT&T store in the afternoon the day of the launch after the initial rush passed and placed a direct fulfillment order for a shiny new white iPhone. Within two business days I had it without having to deal with any crowds. When ordering the phone the rep I talked to mentioned that the black iPhones were on backorder at this point while the white ones were not (one of the reasons I choose to get a white one though I think in the end I like it better than the black one) so I do not have any idea how fast other orders are being filled. I do think, though, it's definitely the way to go so that you are not stressing out about having to constantly check stores day-in and day-out.

Also, in regards to the stock, unlike the last go around Apple is doing a world-wide release in a greater number of countries, so I'm not really surprised if there is a lack of iPhones available and since those countries tend to have 3G networks there is probably a greater demand for it there as well.

[ejdouglas]

this blog is all over this ******** answer from at&t and it made me laugh so check it out. going to wait for mine from the apple store. at least they do seem to have them sometimes BUT make sure they don't change their store time opening on you like they did me on monday... got there at just before 10am, as advertised on their site, but they had opened at 9am.

http://docsontheweb.blogspot.com/2008/07/direct-fullfillment-thirty-years-after.html

[dirty55409]

maybe Apple is trying the Wii approach to selling their new poopPhone. lmao

[austinMILF]

Yeah, apple's availability page on their website is complete BS. I checked Wednesday night and it said both Austin stores (Domain and Barton Creek) will be out. Next day I read this story and called Barton Creek. The guy told me they had it in stock in "GOOD QUANTITIES" including 16GB black. I went there at 2 PM, waited three hours to get mine. Even at 5 pm they had plenty and they were not turning away anybody from the line. No 16 GB whites though. Which is kinda strange since that was less in demand.

The Domain store didn't have it in stock so apple at least got 50% right :)

[hugoguyny]

You can buy the apple iPhone 3g through At&t Wireless online.