And you thought people only lined up for sneakers in advanced, well think again. Lines are forming for Apple’s iPhone 5 in NYC. The hype has officially began.
They began gathering in front of the location, also known as the Cube, on Friday, a full week before the devices are scheduled to go on sale. If theiPhone 5 follows the same pattern as other popular Apple gadgets, the lines will continue to grow.
This is the time when the public’s adoration for Apple products is in full view. Few tech companies are as good as Apple at generating huge demand and then turning that demand into spectacle. The media will play their role, interviewing the people in line who will vouch for the quality of iPhones.
For Apple critics and the fans of competing devices, the scene must be excruciating.
Those people can console themselves with this: the line in front of the Cube appears to lack many true Apple fans. By that I mean there is little to learn about the public’s devotion to Apple by interviewing the five or six people who were waiting in line just after midnight this morning.
Most are publicity seekers.
No, Greg Packer wasn’t among them. Packer is a well known publicity hound in New York who has made a hobby out of being first in line at all sorts of events, including Apple’s, and then grabbing all the attention when reporters do their man-on-the-street interviews. Packer is gone but those first in line at the Cube today acknowledge they aren’t sleeping on the streets solely to buy the next-generation iPhone.
Hazem Sayed told CNET he’s in line for a chance to generate some publicity for Vibe, a social-network software application. Google Sayed’s name and you’ll see that he’s as famous for standing in line as he is for creating Vibe. During the iPad 2 sale in March 2011, Sayed paid a college student $900 for the No.1 position in line and was written up in Fortune.com and other media outlets.
[cnet]
