Just outside of Washington, D.C. and under a gray, drizzling sky, more than 100 people are lined up outside the Clarendon Apple Store waiting for the iPhone. Some have been here since approximately 9:00 P.M. last night with Kevin Towson, a 38-year-old law enforcement officer taking premiere spot at the front of the line.
With the line stretching almost halway around the length of the outdoor shopping center, many in folding chairs, reading magazines and listening to iPods to pass the time, he’s not alone.
With less than three hours to wait, Apple employees shuffle back and forth, the store having closed at 2 P.M. to prep for the launch. Outside, the people in line talk quietly to themselves, this only being broken by occasional pairs of Apple employees, one with asking if people want bottles of water and the other with a hand truck, walking up and down the line.
“This does everything about half as well as it should,” says Jason Miller, an environmental engineer from Arlington, Virginia. Happily reclined in a lounge chair, he states that he’s happy to trade away his Treo and that someone threw an unidentified cell phone into the street earlier before running out into the street to retrieve it. What he wants is “a smart phone that’s a little smarter than what’s out there on the market.”
Glenn Sparico, a local teacher, grins sheepishly at a generic LG cell phone, which he claims he may sell for “oh, like a dollar.” Citing its bulky feel, clumsy web browser and lack of a capable contact manager or calender program, he states that he wants a calendar and contact manager that can handle more than 1,000 contacts instead of the current 225 person limit as well as a better way to sync data.
Keith Washington, a photographer from Washington, D.C., is also among those giving up a Treo in favor of an iPhone. Fed up with slow performance and dropped called, he smiles when he claims “it does everything that you don’t want it to do.” When asked if $499 is an excessive amount to spend on a phone, he cites that his Treo was about the same price when he originally purchased it.
Rounding out the group, Pete Jensen, who runs a helicopter program for a Washington, D.C. hospital, claims that “Today, I’ve got three things in my pocket. Tomorrow, I’ll have one.” Giving up an iPod, a PDA and a cell phone, he’s happy to have the pocket space back if one device can provide it.
A picture’s worth a thousand words and the first gallery can be found here.
Just outside of Washington, D.C. and under a gray, drizzling sky, more than 100 people are lined up outside the Clarendon Apple Store waiting for the iPhone. Some have been here since approximately 9:00 P.M. last night with Kevin Towson, a 38-year-old law enforcement officer taking premiere spot at the front of the line.
With the line stretching almost halway around the length of the outdoor shopping center, many in folding chairs, reading magazines and listening to iPods to pass the time, he’s not alone.
With less than three hours to wait, Apple employees shuffle back and forth, the store having closed at 2 P.M. to prep for the launch. Outside, the people in line talk quietly to themselves, this only being broken by occasional pairs of Apple employees, one with asking if people want bottles of water and the other with a hand truck, walking up and down the line.
“This does everything about half as well as it should,” says Jason Miller, an environmental engineer from Arlington, Virginia. Happily reclined in a lounge chair, he states that he’s happy to trade away his Treo and that someone threw an unidentified cell phone into the street earlier before running out into the street to retrieve it. What he wants is “a smart phone that’s a little smarter than what’s out there on the market.”
Glenn Sparico, a local teacher, grins sheepishly at a generic LG cell phone, which he claims he may sell for “oh, like a dollar.” Citing its bulky feel, clumsy web browser and lack of a capable contact manager or calender program, he states that he wants a calendar and contact manager that can handle more than 1,000 contacts instead of the current 225 person limit as well as a better way to sync data.
Keith Washington, a photographer from Washington, D.C., is also among those giving up a Treo in favor of an iPhone. Fed up with slow performance and dropped called, he smiles when he claims “it does everything that you don’t want it to do.” When asked if $499 is an excessive amount to spend on a phone, he cites that his Treo was about the same price when he originally purchased it.
Rounding out the group, Pete Jensen, who runs a helicopter program for a Washington, D.C. hospital, claims that “Today, I’ve got three things in my pocket. Tomorrow, I’ll have one.” Giving up an iPod, a PDA and a cell phone, he’s happy to have the pocket space back if one device can provide it.
A picture’s worth a thousand words and the first gallery can be found here.