After the iPhone 6 online booking frenzy it’s now the turn for the city roads and sidewalks adorning the Apple (AAPL, Financial) stores to face the heat of the iPhone 6 fanfare. As predicted in our earlier article titled ‘IPhone6 Sets The Market On Fire’ the picture around the entrance of Apple store far and wide is no different every time Apple launches a new product.
With the iPhone 6 hitting the shelves last Friday, the Apple fanfare could be seen on the streets from Thursday evening queuing up to grab their slice of Apple before anyone else could. Thursday evening and night seemed like a festive night out gathering outside the Apple stores dotting the cities across the globe.
The regular picture of downtown Portland is people sleeping out on the streets every night in. This week, at least, some of them apparently expect to make a buck – or several – while doing so. Let’s take a look at what happened while iPhone 6 hits the stores.
iPhone 6 the New Festival
On Friday morning the Apple stores opened to first let in the customers who had booked the hot gizmo online, leaving behind another score of people outside the store waiting eagerly for their chance to grab this new Apple star. But that is not just all - there are people making a few quick bucks as well in order to facilitate the prissy Apple fans get their dream gadget without having to spend the night on the streets.
A lot of the less privileged lot waited outside the Apple stores through the Thursday nights to handover their place in the queue to the iPhone fansters in exchange of a few dollars. Mixed in with the usual die-hard Apple fanboys and fangirls outside its downtown store Friday morning were an assortment of more rugged campers, many evidently accustomed to a night on the street.
Randy Watson, 30, a die-hard Apple consumer said “he'd spent an exhausting night waiting for his phone and figured he'd try it – and sell it if he doesn't like it.”
A 29-year-old Portland man who goes by Night Hawk sat in line on the sidewalk outside Apple's store Friday morning while his dog, a Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix called Baby Girl, sat perched on his shoulders. Someone approached him about buying an iPhone for a fee, Night Hawk said, and he readily agreed since he would be outside anyway. But he doesn't know how much he'll make, and won't until he reaches the front of the line.
In another incident a man from Dallas said that he heard that if he can buy a pair of the new iPhone 6 in the first go he can sell them and make an extra $100; so he took it up and waited through the night on Thursday outside the nearby Apple store sleeping on the curb. To quote him he said that “this experience was like camping in the middle of the city. Only that we're not homeless.”
We also found out that a high school gizmo geek Dave McMohan waited since 3.30 pm Thursday all through the night on a blanket outside the Apple store to get his new smart phone the iphone 6 on Friday morning before he could shift from his current college and the city, we found him using an old school candy bar handset which he had been using for the last few months as he lost his last iPhone 5S.
In another incident a couple of Portland State students Joshua Ruch, 22, and Ben Torrens, 23, lined up at 4 p.m. Thursday for their new iPhone 6s. "It's a social thing," Torrens said. The pair spent the night playing Monopoly and enjoying a mild, late-summer night outside.
These incidents are just a few of the crazy craving for the new iPhone series. Obviously these incidents are no front page headlines of political movements or global unrest or socio cultural festival celebration, but this iPhone frenzy that is gripping the world overnight with its latest launch is a cult in itself. This scene is not new and this kind of street drama is always round the corner whenever there is a new launch from the Apple brand wagon.
Story inside the Apple Store
While new iPhones start at $200 for buyers who will commit to a contract with a wireless carrier, a contract-free phone is $650. On eBay, the high-end iPhone 6s are already selling for close to $1,000. In China, where the new phones aren't yet on sale, they're going to command a price tag of $2,000 or more.
By around 9 a.m. the Apple stores were sold out of the new jumbo iPhone 6 Plus, except for a few still available for use on Sprint's network contract. Regular iPhone 6s were still available but were also fast moving which means the Apple factories will now have to double time their working to cater to the incessant demand for the wonder gadget.
Analyst Take on the new Apple Product
Is this just a bubble for the first day first show or a tech marvel which the world would like to experience? Well for the last few launches that has been happening from the Apple house it certainly does not look like a bubble which will fizz out in a day or two, unless some other tech giant launches a tech masterpiece which can offset all the features of the new iPhone and the brand craze of Apple. As of now, it is time to observe closely how the iPhone citizens react after they have used this fresh breed of iPhones - that is the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus for a couple of months. So stay tuned with us till we get the next phase of reactions from the new iPhone users.
