Matt Mullenweg, who is here in London (speaking at my conference) convinced me that we should queue-up and get a new iPhone 5s phone. Instead of picking Regent Street store or the one on Covent Garden, we went to the store in Stratford (which is sort of the place we know from London Olympics) because we thought it would be less crowded. So off we went…at 6 am in the morning after being out till wee hours of the morning. Clearly, lack of sleep has made me cranky.
… there was a lot of activity at the Stratford City Station. People were on their way to work…
… the path to Westfield Mall (which looks like a regular old American mall) was long and curved..
…and when we arrived we found many people who were already in the queue. Few looked like they were excited to be there, most looked like they were going to be scalping these soon to others.
…and there were even more people…
… some were lucky to be right upfront and were getting their new iPhones
… Matt and I aren’t the lucky ones. We decided to beat a hasty retreat and get some sleep.
…for a few seconds this was an option.
Mission unaccomplished!
PS: Friends who lined up outside Regent Street store say there were about 600 people and another iPhone nut reported over 500 people at the Covent Garden Store.
Rarely will I stand in line for a new product. That’s what online pre-orders are for.
At least you weren’t rained on. 🙂
After the first iPhone, and maybe the 3GS, I can’t understand why anyone is waiting in line for a phone that has barely changed from the previous version. Even if it was radical, why won’t people wait a week? Is life really that much better because you got a new toy as soon as possible?
Really??? Why on earth are people still standing in line for iPhones? Over the years Apple has released so many “new” versions that at this point does it really matter which one you got? iPhones, androids, and smartphones are such old news. I can’t believe people are still investing so much energy in such things.