It’s 4am and I’m trying to sleep on a tiled floor, fully dressed and using my afghan scarf as a pillow.
The whole situation is strangely familiar.
I was in fact in this exact position a few months earlier.
The place is Robina Shopping mall, Queensland.
But this time it’s not the fabled Apple iPad I’m here for, it the iPhone 4.
It seems ages ago that I qued up in Exeter, Devon with my brother in tow to buy the iPhone 3G on launch day. Over the last two years it’s served me well and revamped the way I conduct my everyday life. It’s simplified everything.
I skipped the chance to upgrade my contract and get a 3GS, as much as a geek as I may appear pimping out the inside of the phone isn’t enough to part me from my cash!
iPhone 4 on the other hand is a giant leap from my 3G handset.
When it was announced I already knew I was getting one. With all the leaks and Internet rumors it was bound to be worth the hype.
And it was.
Boasting a 5mp camera with flash, HD video and editing, multitasking, video calling, retina display and gorrilla glass the whole thing came packaged in a gorgeously sleek and simplistic shell, a testament to everything Apple.
The plan was to preorder an unlocked one in the UK and get it shipped out to Oz which was -rather annoyingly – not to have it launched until a few months later.
That plan went tits up as soon as pre order opened. The demand crashed the websites and eventually 3 shipments were sold out, leaving a 3 week waiting list.
…by which time Oz would have it!
So when the Oz launch date was published I had to figure a new plan of attack. My first was ti take the easy route, grab one from the Optus shop about a minutes walk from my hostel. That was scrapped when they informed me that it was contract only.
I quickly got on the phone to Robina Apple store who reassured me that unlocked, handsets would be available from them.
The plan was to head there early, que to guarantee my phone and head back in time for lunch!
Unfortunately the launch date fell on the morning after the Aquarius Industry PJ Party (which will be blogged this week sometime!) …which basically meant choosing between epically drunk nights out on free booze or a shiny new phone. As you may have guessed Apple won through!
I left the crew at CocoMangas around 2am and began the hour long drive up the coast. But not without a few issues regarding fuel :S
On arriving at Robina (it was now around 4am…I was quite delayed!) I thought I’d grab an hour or so Kip before lining up – the car park was empty after all. For some reason or another I decided that this wasn’t actually a good plan, and did some investigating on Twitter (yes I’m a complete geek now!) and discovered that there was indeed already a line. After wearily navigating my way around to the entry point I was surprised to find out that security were letting people into the building to wait.
As I turned the corner to the Apple store I was pleasantly surprised – there we only about 15 people in front of me, which basically meant I had my phone in the bag :)
Trying to salvage a few hours sleep on a cold tiled floor isn’t easiest thing to achieve, but I did manage to rest up a bit. As 7am rolled around the excitement began to build and the Apple employees did the rounds handing out free coffee and doughnuts to the quickly extending line. In getting to my section I was amused by the fact that a large majority of them recognised me from the iPad launch and even knew my name – although I’m not sure what that says about my Apple addiction!LOL!
As the doors to the store opened the now 200 strong line were greeted by the cheers and claps off our hosts, and everyone was stoked to be minutes away from getting what they’d spent hours waiting for. After being introduced to my personal shopper I had my 16GB, unlocked, iPhone 4 in my hands, a beautiful piece of design by Mr Johnny Ive.
The Apple dude (I shamelessly forget his name!) registered it all there and then for me and synced it all up to my MobileMe and after some very useful banter and app recommendations by either side I walked out the store with a big smile on my face :)
On the walk back through the mall to the car I passed the length of the still growing line, feeling slightly gutted for those who may have turned up too late!
The drive home couldn’t have gone any slower! At this point all I wanted was two things; to play with my new toy and to sleep.
On arriving home the latter won, but only after 10mins of showing it my new purchase to Kez and the handful of other AQ staff who weren’t still sleeping off the previous nights carnage, although they did look rather worse for wear!
After catching up on some z’s I spent the remainder of the day basically annoying everyone by chatting iPhone non stop.
I can definitely say that iPhone 4 is worth it though, it’s a sleek bit of kit that performs superbly and lives up to the hype Apple created for it – I’ll post a review up here later this week.
Apple geekery over.
…for this year at least (iPad 2 anyone?!)
