A Day in the Line: Queuing Up for the iPhone 3G Launch

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com SAN FRANCISCO, California — It's finally here. After months of waiting, salivating and prognosticating, the iPhone 3G finally became available worldwide today. Lining up in front of the San Francisco Apple store during the wee hours on Friday morning, Wired.com correspondents talked to a litany of fascinating iPhone fans, geeky tech-heads and even some cynics.

Here's a smattering of some interesting faces we encountered from that crowd, plus a few glimpses of other queues from around the world. Left: The line outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store stretched around the block by 7 a.m. While Apple claimed its mandatory in-store activation would only take 15 minutes, technical problems caused the morning's early setups to drag on for 45 minutes or more.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Many patrons who got in line early for the iPhone 3G came prepared with hammocks, sleeping bags and tents. Here, an unidentified member of the queue grabs a few winks before the phone went on sale at 8 a.m. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com JT, a web designer from San Francisco and his dog, Chaya, literally cheese for the camera, simultaneously showing off their love for Apple communication devices and partially hydrogenated cheddar-flavored products spewed from pressurized cans.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Lane, an Alameda, California, resident and iPhone line holder exercises some capitalist muscle, offering his spot near the front of the queue for $100. Lane had no takers at the time this photo was taken at 7:30 a.m. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com In the space of an hour, the line outside the AT&T Wireless store in downtown San Francisco nearly tripled before doors opened at 8 am.

: Photo: Ed Ou/Associated Press A customer, right, purchases a new Apple iPhone 3G in New York's Apple Store. IPhone buyers had waited in lines around a city block and happily counted down the final 30 seconds before launch. : Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press Future iPhone owners wait in the line outside Japanese mobile carrier Softbank's flagship store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district late Thursday, July 10, 2008, before the first sales of Apple's iPhone in Japan Friday.

: Photo: Sang Tan/Associated Press d from that crowd, plus a few glimpses of other queues from around the world. Left: The line outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store stretched around the block by 7 a.m. While Apple claimed its mandatory in-store activation would only take 15 minutes, technical problems caused the morning's early setups to drag on for 45 minutes or more.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Many patrons who got in line early for the iPhone 3G came prepared with hammocks, sleeping bags and tents. Here, an unidentified member of the queue grabs a few winks before the phone went on sale at 8 a.m. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com JT, a web designer from San Francisco and his dog, Chaya, literally cheese for the camera, simultaneously showing off their love for Apple communication devices and partially hydrogenated cheddar-flavored products spewed from pressurized cans.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Lane, an Alameda, California, resident and iPhone line holder exercises some capitalist muscle, offering his spot near the front of the queue for $100. Lane had no takers at the time this photo was taken at 7:30 a.m. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com In the space of an hour, the line outside the AT&T Wireless store in downtown San Francisco nearly tripled before doors opened at 8 am.

: Photo: Ed Ou/Associated Press A customer, right, purchases a new Apple iPhone 3G in New York's Apple Store. IPhone buyers had waited in lines around a city block and happily counted down the final 30 seconds before launch. : Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press Future iPhone owners wait in the line outside Japanese mobile carrier Softbank's flagship store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district late Thursday, July 10, 2008, before the first sales of Apple's iPhone in Japan Friday.

: Photo: Sang Tan/Associated Press Customers queue inside the Apple retail store on Regent Street, London, for the phone's launch. : Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com Angelique Guillermo, left, assistant manager of the downtown-S.F. AT&T store, explains to Mark Hogenson, right, and Ellen Davis, center, that after a long morning of waiting in line, they may not get an iPhone due to dwindling supplies.

"It's probably not looking too good," Davis commented on her chances of getting a new phone today. "I really have to pee, so I'm debating what's more important at this point." : Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated Press Models hold the new iPhones today in Hong Kong. Dealers and buyers said it's only a matter of time -- maybe as little as a few days -- before the popular device hits the region's thriving underground marketplace.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Technology "evangelist" Robert Scoble (center, wearing pistachio-colored shirt) showed up at San Francisco’s iPhone 3G launch, documenting the event digitally, of course. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Dominic Sagolla, organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, literally takes a whiff of his new iPhone 3G. Sagolla was the first customer to emerge from the Apple store in San Francisco with the new device in hand..

Fri Jul 2008 02:07 (6 months ago)