The iPhone’s Finally Here / Cheers in Short Pump Signal Release of Apple’s Latest, Greatest Device
By JEFFREY KELLEY
At 2 p.m. yesterday, the Apple Inc. store at Short Pump Town Center closed, and a black veil was draped across the interior of the windows so no one could see inside.
About an hour later, Robert Bowman showed up to join the line of about 100 people waiting to buy the iPhone, which went on sale at 6 p.m.
Bowman had planned to buy only one. Then his wife called.
“She had said she didn’t want one. Suddenly she was overcome and said, ‘Get me one!’ ” the 40-year-old said. “I told her that was an expensive impulse purchase. And she said, ‘Get me one!’ “
Several minutes before 6 o’clock, the black veil was taken down, and two giant iPhone models hung in the windows counting down the minutes and seconds until the much-hyped gadget was released.
When that time came, Apple employees began cheering as dozens of teenagers and adults swarmed into the store to pick up and buy the iPhone.
After he shelled out $600 for the 8-gigabyte version, Asim Choudhri couldn’t even wait to get it home to Charlottesville. So he sat on the sidewalk outside the store, plugged his iPhone into his MacBook laptop and went to work activating the device online. “I just can’t wait to get it into action,” he said, as passers-by stopped to gawk.
The device costs $500 or $600, depending on how many songs and videos it can hold. Monthly plans from AT&T – the exclusive wireless provider – begin at $60. The iPhone’s functions – videos, an iPod, maps, weather, stocks, the Internet, text messaging and, yes, a phone – are accessed via a touch screen.
How badly did people want the iPhone?
— Todd Dube said he’d gladly pay to terminate his Verizon Wireless contract to switch. Thinking the line was getting too big, he left work, didn’t stop at home to change and his wife
bought him flip-flops so he’d be comfortable. Dube bought two iPhones. The second was for his wife.
— Tommy Lee paid someone to wait in line since 6 a.m. Lee, a marketing executive downtown, convinced his boss that he should be reimbursed for using the iPhone because it works well with Mac computers. Lee does all his work on Macs.
— Charles Guthrie won’t save pocket space with iPhone. It’ll be his third hand-held communications gadget. He has a contract with Verizon Wireless for a phone and T-Mobile for a text-messaging device. Now he’s added an AT&T calling plan.
— Techies and luminaries – including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on a Segway scooter and the mayor of Philadelphia – showed up at stores across the U.S. to wait in lines. About 200 people stood outside Apple’s store on Fifth Avenue in New York, where the line began forming three days ago.
— The iPhone has had Jason Sewell’s heart since Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced it in early January.
“I’m like the kind of guy that if I could just pre-authorize my credit card for the next thing that Apple comes out with, I would probably do it,” he said.
Apple has not disclosed how many iPhones were available at launch. But analysts expect it will sell out by early next week between sales rung up at retail stores and online through Apple’s Web site, which has been a major distribution outlet for other company products.
Contact Jeffrey Kelley at (804) 649-6348 or jkelley@timesdispatch.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
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