Apple: iPhone Line Has Started...100-Hours Early
Two dudes are already waiting in line at the NYC 5th Avenue Apple flagship store. Even for the PS3, PS2, and Wii, I've never seen a 100-hour lead time on a gadget queue. I'm disgusted, but also kind of jealous.
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPhone launch on Friday has turned into a countdown spectacle: after the first Manhattan line formed four days out, two campers outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship have now stretched the lead time past 100 hours — longer than Gizmodo says any PS3, PS2 or Wii launch ever drew. That comparison matters because console launches were until now the benchmark for American gadget hysteria.
The queue is forming on top of a week of deliberate groundwork: Apple has seeded retail with display kiosks running UI demos, and Apple and AT&T have published three service plans starting at $59.99/month with unlimited data, so would-be buyers lining up already know their monthly commitment. Coverage of iPhone mania nearing fever pitch frames the camp-out as the visible peak of a hype cycle some columnists argue has outrun the product itself.
First-order effects
- Apple's Fifth Avenue store gets days of free national media coverage before doors even open Friday, with the first two campers functioning as an unpaid press corps for the launch.
- AT&T's newly announced $59.99-and-up unlimited-data plans give everyone in that queue a concrete total cost of ownership, converting hype into signed contracts on day one.
Second-order effects
- Every competing handset maker and carrier launching this summer will be judged against an audience that now expects camp-outs as proof of demand, raising the bar for what counts as a successful launch event.
- Retailers hosting these queues absorb real costs — security, crowd control, lost sidewalk access — and will start treating launch-night logistics as part of the deal they cut with Apple.
Third-order effects
- If 100-hour waits become the template, product launches consolidate into a handful of annual media events where the queue itself is the marketing, favoring brands like Apple that can manufacture scarcity and starving mid-tier devices of launch-day attention.
The trend: Consumer-tech launches are shifting from retail transactions to staged spectator events, with queue length becoming the public scoreboard for brand demand.