Manage updates with the Download AppJune 12, 2007 12:57 PM PDT
The great iPhone hunt of 2007
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A CNET News.com survey of 75 Apple and AT&T stores indicates that may be a wise approach.
Not one Apple store contacted offered would-be iPhone buyers the chance to get on a waiting list, but some AT&T stores and retailers did. The catch: not all stores that sell AT&T phones expect to be selling the iPhone on June 29, and some that will expressed concern about receiving sufficient quantities of the highly anticipated device.
An AT&T-owned store in Times Square in midtown Manhattan, for instance, said that about 100 people had been placed on a waiting list. When asked whether being on that list guarantees priority for buying an iPhone, a store employee replied, "It depends how accessible you make yourself. I'm going to call you. If you're here, you'll get it."
One open question is whether AT&T/Cingular franchises and resellers will ever be selling the iPhone. (Because exclusive Cingular agents have signs and decor that looked just like company-owned stores, it hasn't been easy to tell them apart. But as of a few weeks ago, locally owned stores are now called AT&T authorized retailers and are labeled as such in the company's online directory.)
Tips for landing an iPhone
• Log on to Apple's Web-based store on June 29. The phone is set to go on sale at 6 p.m. that day, Jobs announced. Sign up for updates here. But forget trying AT&T's e-commerce site; the company says it won't be selling iPhones online, at least initially.
• Call a few local AT&T stores and see if you can get on their waiting lists or if your local sales representative has any tips about how that particular store is handling requests. Most will tell you it's all first-come, first-served, but practices appear to vary widely.
• Show up early at an Apple store or company-owned AT&T store before they open on June 29. Most stores say they will be keeping normal hours that day, although midnight parties at Apple stores don't appear to be completely ruled out. The big question is how many phones each store will stock.
• Wait until the June 29 mania dies down and hope that AT&T and Apple decide to allow locally owned AT&T franchises and resellers to carry the product as well. More locations should mean more units--and shorter lines.
AT&T spokesman John Kampfe initially denied on Tuesday that any franchises or resellers would receive iPhones. "The iPhone will be available in all AT&T-owned retail stores nationwide, which number about 1,800. Again it will be sold only in AT&T-owned retail stores, Apple retail stores and through Apple's online store," Kampfe said in an e-mail interview.
But in the News.com survey, some franchises have said the opposite: that they expect to supply customers with iPhones starting June 29. Others, however, have said they're not getting the product at all; some say they're unsure whether they'll stock them; and some said that if they did, the phones would likely not arrive until at least July.
A Manhattan AT&T franchise on Third Avenue said on Tuesday that it's also expecting the phone on June 29 but did not have a waiting list. In Miami, an employee at an AT&T franchise on Dixie Highway said she had 16 people on a waiting list for the 15 phones expected in the first shipment and would continue taking names for the next batch of 15 phones. Those are expected to arrive two weeks later.
In a follow-up conversation, AT&T's Kampfe indicated that franchises might be able to start selling phones after June 29. "We haven't disclosed what we're doing beyond the 29th," he said. "That's not to say we are going to make them available, but as of the 29th, it is only going to be in AT&T-owned stores, Apple stores, and Apple online."
Some other tidbits that surfaced in the survey:
• When asked whether it was possible to get on a waiting list or preorder the iPhone, many AT&T store representatives cited an internal company memorandum barring both practices. But AT&T's Kampfe said he could not confirm or comment on the existence of such a policy. "Our policy is that it is going to be sold on the day--no advance sales or anything of that nature," he told CNET News.com in a phone interview.
• In San Francisco, an AT&T franchise store on Chestnut Street said it had assembled a waiting list of sorts, but "maxed out" about two weeks ago and would no longer be adding names to the list. That store said it expected to receive about 30 iPhones, but most likely not until at least a few days after the projected launch date. Five more stores in San Francisco, most of them AT&T-owned, said they weren't taking preorders or starting waiting lists, as did the downtown Apple store. Another franchise on Kearny Street said it wasn't stocking the phone at all.
• Two stores in the Los Angeles area, which appeared from their directory listing to be AT&T-owned, said they were taking down names for an informal waiting list, but they couldn't guarantee that those on the list would actually get their hands on the first crop of phones. (Three other area stores, however, declined such requests at all.)
• Very few employees at AT&T or Apple stores had the faintest idea how many phones their stores will stock, with many of them blaming that lack of information on secrecy from the corporate powers at Apple.
• But some were more optimistic than others about the quantities. A Miami Beach Apple store employee enthusiastically predicted that there would be "enough" for everyone who wanted one, while an Apple store employee in Cambridge, Mass., said she'd heard "good numbers" of iPhones would be available at her location. A Salt Lake City Apple store employee, for his part, couldn't be more specific than "a bunch." Estimates by some AT&T store employees were more conservative, however. Employees at company-owned stores in downtown San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., admitted they were expecting only a "limited" number, at least at first.
• The cube-shaped Apple store on New York's Fifth Avenue may be open for business 24 hours a day, but a representative who answered the phone chuckled (knowingly?) when asked whether that location would begin selling the phones at midnight on June 29. Apple hasn't told the store anything about that, she said.
• At Apple's Salt Lake City outpost, an employee said he had heard buzz about a midnight launch party, but knew only one thing for certain: come June 29, there was sure to be a line going out the door. Almost every customer that walks into the store asks about the iPhone, he said.
• An Omaha, Neb., Apple store employee said he fully expected to see people camping outside before the launch, while a Portland, Ore. employee actually advised doing so: "I recommend pitching a tent," he said, perhaps only half kidding.
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
See more CNET content tagged:
AT&T Corp., reseller, Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, retailer
32 comments
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<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2007/06/11/tips-for-getting-an-" target="_newWindow">http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2007/06/11/tips-for-getting-an-</a>
iphone-at-launch/
it says you can use a Google Earth layer to view AT&T-owned retail
stores, but they all pop up as Cingular. Ditto with the company
directory! Is my local store (which comes up as "Cingular Wireless"
on the dir. and Google Earth, and the guy's business card says
"AT&T Mobility") a COR? Will it have iPhones or not? Any help?
Real company owned and operated stores can offer handset exchanges or take payments for your wireless account.
locations: 6 PM Local time.
(If you do watch the keynote and it's just to see this, it's all the way
at the end when it's time for "One Last Thing...")
Fast forward to about 1:13:30, that's where Jobs starts talking about the iPhone. The exact quote is "I believe it's 6pm in the evening that it will go on sale." Apple PR folks have yet to clarify what exactly he meant by that. Did you see a reference to "local time" somewhere else?
Store was actually a misquote by the Huffington Post when it
originally was published. They later corrected this, re-quoting him
as saying "...an AT&T Store OR [added emphasis] an Apple Store."
HINT HINT
I?m rethinking whether it?s worth being made
an equivalent of a barnyard animal or not.
A 6 PM release of a product seems awfully
risky of making for complete confusion
in an already busy retail environment by
that time of the day. And a busy Friday night
at that!
I?ve not made up my yet, but Apple may
have lost a thousand dollar sale from me.
I?m willing to be in-line at an early hour
when a business first opens for the day,
but in line meshing with other people
whom may, or may not be there for the same reason?
I guess they have their strategy.
I may recreate mine as well.
Simply not make an iPhone purchase.
John
morning rush than a Friday evening rush, then you won't get one
at all?
Line-ups or not, I think most people will wait a few days before
buying one, so I don't see your logic leading to no purchase if
you can't avoid the first night's crowds.
You either want one badly enough to brave that mob, or you can
wait for the next opportunity, but if you won't buy one if you
can't get it handed to you in what almost amounts to a private
ceremony, then you either don't really want one, or you're just
being very childish.
again get a life it's only a phone...and stop covering it is so relentelessly, please CNet. What about HTC, and for example this sucker: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/only-one-pound/everun-umpc-is-super-light-super-mobile-and-looks-like-it-might-not-suck-264916.php" target="_newWindow">http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/only-one-pound/everun-umpc-is-super-light-super-mobile-and-looks-like-it-might-not-suck-264916.php</a>
That's like saying a Prada bag is just a bag - every female I know would disagree with you!
And in a similar vein if you can't wait until June 29th then check out the Prada phone by LG, it's available now and bears more than a few similarities to the iPhone!
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.mobiles.co.uk/lg-prada.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.mobiles.co.uk/lg-prada.html</a>
Windows are more restricted than a wheelchair bound person in a
building with only staircases!
WOW! That could meen waiting... oh, 2 days.
This phone sold by AT&T goes for $399....and has way more features.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/8525/index.jsp" target="_newWindow">http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/8525/index.jsp</a>
3G...push to talk, support for wireless syncing of Exchange email.....plug it into your notebook and ti becomes a wireless broadband modem. It has hundreds of applications you can run.
Both are cell phones. Cell phones last a max of two years for most people...probably less before they move onto something new.
It is like CNet cant run enough stories about a CELL Phone. Is Apple paying you for this press coverage?
get about 2 of them on the 29th.
everyone wins!