Team Up to Battle thru iPhone Chorus Line
You Can Avoid the iPhone Madness on 'iDay' this Friday (tomorrow) or?
Join it in Order to Get Your Hands on One; Plus, Complete List of Stores!
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
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The Apple Store at Freehold Raceway Mall in New Jersey is zero miles away from the nearest AT&T Store. Should prove really interesting. Same with the Apple Store in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. These are just two Apple and AT&T stores right at each other's noses. Closer than the ones at Bay Street, Emeryville.
Then there's the Apple Store San Francisco where not one, not two, but three AT&T Stores are under a mile away from Apple, all on busy Market Street. Or, it could be the other way around and your AT&T Store could have two Apple Stores right near it as is the case with the AT&T Store in Palo Alto, CA.
Which brings us to the second thought previously mentioned, on how not staying away from places where Apple and AT&T storess are nose-to-nose with each other. And whether or not your Apple Store is right across the street from your AT&T Store, the idea will still work.
Tomorrow, instead of lining up with your friends and making the experience a "Cingular" sensation with all the other people joining you in the chorus line, you should all split up and spread yourselves out among Apple and AT&T stores nearby.
Kind of like the Emeryville location's situation. You could be lined up in front of the Apple Store and you won't miss your friend who'd be right across the way, though a little off to the right, lined up at the Cingular Wireless store. Contrary to reports, Cingular stores will have the iPhone as long as they are AT&T owned and operated (not franchises).
And even if you're not that close from your Apple Store to AT&T Store, or AT&T Store to other AT&T Store, (or a Cingular Wireless store if it still hasn't made the change to the AT&T name-- again, so as long as it is owned and operated by AT&T... can't stress that enough since you'll be lining up for nothing!), it'll still work. You'll just need to do some good planning.
Just stay linked up via your Sprint cell phone, or Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Metro PCS, whatever. (Because you're all planning to--or have already done so--get out of your contracts with them to get your AT&T-only iPhone, right?)
Then, when the line starts rolling, you all have a better chance of getting your hands on an iPhone since you're not at the same store. Just make sure you have enough money for yourself and to cover your friends'... well, that's the catch.
AT&T has put a limit on the number of phones you can buy Friday. One iPhone per person. Apple on the other hand will allow up to two phones per person, according to their press release from just today.
But that's why this idea works perfectly for those stores "inches" away from each other. You can keep tabs on each other's place in line. If you're closer to getting in than the other, call your friend over to join you. And vice versa. It wouldn't be the same if you both, or all or you, were in the same line. Why?
Say your Apple Store has 500 iPhone units available. If you're #500 in line, so much for your friends' chances. Then again, if at the AT&T store, they have 500 units available, and in that line, you're #257 in line... get the picture? Based on Steve Jobs's comment though, people will probably be going to AT&T outlets.
Jobs said in an interview (not with us), "Don't go to an Apple store. It will be a madhouse there. People will be lined up around the block, sleeping on the sidewalk to get one. Go to an AT&T/Cingular store. Most people don't know that they will be selling them too." Apple is reported to have 1000 units in some places.
There must be billions of iPhones out there, considering the number of AT&T stores out there that outnumber the total number of Apple Stores in the nation. There are only 170 stores worldwide and 165 are here in the U.S. For every one Apple Store that will have iPhones available, on average, there are at least three other AT&T stores nearby. That's a lot of iPhones!
Not sure which AT&T Stores are carrying the iPhone on Friday? Or whether or not your still-branded-as-Cingular Wireless Store is owned and operated by AT&T or if it's a franchise meaning there won't be an iPhone for sale tomorrow at 6:00p? Don't worry. We've done all the work for you. To a point.
Good luck with the iPhone hunt. Remember, you could go online and get it there and wait a few days to have it shipped to you, avoiding all the chaos and lines. But where's the fun in that??
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[Click here for our in-depth LIST of AT&T Stores located near your local Apple Store!]
