Verizon iPhone Arrives in Retail Stores Today, to Almost Non-Existent Queues

[Maura]

Macworld has been keeping an eye on the queues (or rather the lack of queues) on Verizon iPhone retail launch day, and so far it seems that the cold weather is putting many people off queuing up before the stores open early at 7 a.m. The phone has gone on sale today at Apple, Verizon, Best Buy and Walmart retail outlets, giving customers plenty of opportunity to find one in their local shopping centre or mall. Macworld reports on the situation at the Apple Store at the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco, Texas, which had been expecting long lines in the two-storey shopping mall, but instead found just one early bird – 18-year-old Kanyon Farley, who was the sole recipient of cheers from the Apple employees when the store opened its doors.

“I felt like a king,” he told Macworld.

Apparently Texas is experiencing record cold temperatures at the moment, hence many people not venturing out to queue, and Farley was only able to be there because his school was shut due to the icy conditions.

Business Insider has also been monitoring the launch queues and says that the turnout seems to have been generally low throughout the country.

Sources: The Verizon iPhone 4 launches to mixed lines | Phones | iOS Central | Macworld, Verizon iPhone Lines Are Laughably Short

 

[s10dude]

ha ha ha ...........good one

 

[dunefreak91910]

Why would a phone or any product that can be ordered online be judged by how many poor planners are standing in line for a store to open? If they had ordered it yesterday they would have it today. I, for one, wouldn't stand in a line to get it, of course, I got mine at my office last Tuesday because I, like most on here, pre-ordered it! Give us some sales numbers and then judge.

 

[Rocinante]

"I felt like a king."

Classic.

 

[Medic3166]

On my way into work this morning, I decided to swing past the Verizon store near my house to see if there was a big turnout. I was expecting to see a line similar to that of Best Buy on Thanksgiving night, but at 6:30am, there were 4 people waiting outside. The store was even due to open at 7am in anticipation of the crowd...

I had to go back to the Verizon store around 3 this afternoon (Separate thread on that here: http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/iphone-4-12/first-vzw-iphone-glitch-8291/) They still had an ample stock of both models at that time.

I'm surprised it wasn't as big of a hit as it was expected to be...

 

[geoff5093]

It's not just the weather, several Verizon stores are inside malls and many (such as the Mall of America), had very little to no lines.

 

[DannyBoy]

Cold here... The news said they gave out numbers so they could sit in their cars.

 

[Gregoris]

i would hate being on the verizon network not being able to "multi task" say have a call and internet at the same time

 

[samsa]

It was not a big hit as was expecting .... several Verizon outlets reported to have outstanding inventory at the end of the Day ... may be because advanced orders by verizon.