Okay Geek Farm
Apple Employees point of view on the iPhone 4 Launch
Nick Mahar
There is a reason that Apple followers are sometimes seen as crazy- With the launch of the new iPhone 4, you can already expect people to go ballistic over the device. Lucky for me, I have 3 friends that work at the Apple store near me. Ours is located inside a mall which means our security didn’t allow people to line up until 5am the morning of the launch. You can only imagine the onslaught of people trying to get around this obstacle. This is their story…
One of my friends said that after working 22 hours at an Apple store the day before the release, he walked out to the parking lot that night to discover it was a madhouse. He first saw a man hiding behind a trash can telling him to be quite and pretend he wasn’t there. Others were evading security in the parking lot and even ditching their cars in the middle of the street. Reports have even gone as far as someone getting hit by a car. Eventually the parking lot calmed down and cleared as many people camped the night out across the street at Chase banking.
One Apple employee stated
Last years crowd wouldn’t even listen to the security. The security eventually brought out hoses and sprayed them with water until they left.
I really don’t understand why this is happening at all. What’s the problem with people waiting in line overnight outside the mall? The crowd wouldn’t go crazy, or smash through the glass windows, and rampage through the mall if the authorities just let them camp. People are just trying to wait outside Apple stores, Targets, Best Buys, and everywhere else for special releases of stuff, so why is this any different?
After sleeping only 4 hours, my friend went back to Apple and worked the opening day of the iPhone 4 launch. He said the lines were absolutely crazy. They had the pre-order line and they were trying to get another one forming for non-pre orders. The non pre-order line stretched down through the mall, outside, around a restaurant, back into the mall, back past the Apple store on the other side, and finally ending around the corner at Sears. The pre-order line stretched down to the other end of the mall.
People were so ridiculous that they tried to get Apple employees to let them cut. Another Apple employee stated:
I had a dad say that he needed to get the phone now because he had his kid with him. I told him I bet there is at least 5 other people with the same problem. Another 4 people even said they needed the phone now because they had knee problems and shouldn’t stand for long periods of time. So I told them hold on and brought them a chair, they weren’t happy.
When I asked how long it takes to ring up an iPhone 4, they said:
On average about 1 minute 30 seconds. But then, if people ask, we have to help them set up their mail, contacts, and stuff like that.
For god sakes, are you serious! If you are really buying an iPhone 4, you should know how to do all that by now. Even if you have never bought an iPhone before, it’s not that hard. The best part of the iPhone is that it’s simple to use. Worst case, you watch some videos online or call tech support. You don’t make people wait in line even longer because you are too lazy to do some research - but thats just me venting…
With all the madness at the store, Apple had spent up to $5,000 on food for the employees at the store, and people in line. At the end of the day, their Apple store had sold over 1,500 iPhone 4s! Who says they couldn’t get an iPhone thursday!?
