Veriphone: What if Apple threw a party and no one came? - Your Tech Weblog:
What if Apple threw a party and no one came?
That's kinda-sorta what happened today with the early-morning in-store launch of the Verizon iPhone (which became available online to Verizon users a week ago, and yesterday to anyone who wanted to order it online).
Apple clearly was expecting queuing at its retail store in the Mall of America. So were, to a lesser degree, the Best Buy Mobile store and two Verizon stores in the megamall. Security personnel were everywhere, and the usual queue dividers were set up.
Past launches of Apple products — iPhones, the iPad, various Mac OS X updates — have always drawn crowds of varying sizes.
So I was astounded to arrive at the mall at about 6:30 a.m. to find that NO ONE was in line at the Apple store. Ditto for the Best Buy Mobile store. One of the Verizon stores had a couple of people.
When the Apple store opened for Verizon-iPhone purchases at 7 a.m., two people were in line (and both appeared to know store employees). Given that, it was a bit surreal to see the Apple employees doing the usual clapping-and-cheering routine as the doors opened.