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June 29, 2007

No iPhone, Just a Bottle of Water.

By: The Dude on the Right
So here it is, the big day, probably the most important day in recorded history, and this morning I decided "Screw it, I'm going to try and get an iPhone."  Having too many things to do during the day meant camping out wasn't an option for the 6PM on-sale time, but around where I live there were three stores I could show up at, figuring around 5:30 should still be safe to get one.  Store A was in a developing community where I figured demand shouldn't be that huge.  Store B was by the mall, and I figured that store would probably be packed with all of the crazies who took off work to buy a phone.  Store C was similar to Store A in terms of demographic, but further away.

So I finish with the things I needed to do this Friday, I get back to the dude-pad around 5PM, do a quick read of the newspaper, eat some grub, and then decide that I'm going to take my chances at Store A.  Arriving around 5:40PM there's a line around the side of the store, putting me at about the 40th in line.  "They should be stocked fairly well" I tell myself, and even the people that started arriving after me figured getting a brand spankin' new iPhone shouldn't be a problem.  It's 6PM, the doors open to the promised land, and they begin by letting in 6 people, and then as one leaves, another enters.  The line isn't moving that quickly, but I'm still confident I will be home this evening, iPhone in box, then in hand, then activated, and then I'm cool.  In the meantime the nice AT&T employees (of which it seems they were overstaffed by about 5 people for the way they were selling the phone) came out offering bottles of water.  It's now about 6:15 PM and the manager-looking AT&T dude comes out and announces, looking at the number of people left in line, that he wasn't sure if supply was going to meet demand, blurbs a little about the "direct fulfillment program" if they do run out, the ducked back into the store.  The next round of bottled waters comes out, I decide to grab one, and then the manager-looking dude comes back out and announces the 8 Gig versions are sold out.  He starts to talk about how they still have some 4 Gig versions left, the "direct fulfillment program" again, but I'm already heading to the dude-mobile, mumbling "At least I got a bottle of water."

What to do?  I decide that since I'm already out I might as well head to Store B, the one by the mall, on the slim hope they got a monster shipment of phones.  I arrive, there are about 20 people still in line, and as I take my place the AT&T employee starts pushing that "direct fulfillment program" again, and I pretty much know that tonight, unless I really wanted to take a hell of a chance and head to The Apple Store, I would go to bed iPhone-less.

And so, tonight, I go to bed alone.

But wait, I could order it on line and have it early next week?  That would be good enough for me.  I log in to the Apple web site, click to buy one, and there's a little note that says it won't ship for at least 2 weeks.

I read somewhere that there would be plenty of stock to keep everyone iPhoned, thus killing the eBay market, but if the AT&T stores pretty much sell out of the phones in about an hour, Apple won't ship the phone for a couple of weeks, and those stores don't get replenished, like, tomorrow, I'm thinking I really should have camped out last night and seen if some fool would pay me $1,500 bucks for a new iPhone.

I suppose I should blame myself because part of the reason I am iPhone-less is because I decided dinner and reading the news was just as important as getting in line, and had I actually just gone to the store by the mall, well, I'd probably have a phone this evening, even taking the time to eat my dinner and read the news.  But you know what - I'm not blaming myself - I'm blaming the Apple and AT&T people because I'm guessing the only reason they are selling the 4 Gig iPhone is because they sold out of the 8 Gig, and if they had only had about ten more 8 Gig versions at Store A, I would be cool.

Instead I just got a free bottle of water.

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 8:40 PM | Comments (1)

What's New? A Movie Review of "Ratatouille."

For this movie review of "Ratatouille," Stu Gotz is disappointed because the movie doesn't have a scene that is memorable for him. He can easily rattle off scenes from just about every other Pixar film, but this one lacks a certain connection to him, and his kids were a little bored. See it because you have to, but Stu says don't bother buying the DVD when it comes out.

Posted by Rightdude at 5:00 AM | Comments (0)