The Day I Camped for the iPhone 3G and Got Famous
I never expected getting the iPhone 3G would turn out to be so much fun. Nor did I expect to receive my 15 minutes of fame on the day. Looking back, I’m glad that I did it and enjoyed the cold night/morning with the friends I made.
Here’s what happened on the day I camped for the iPhone 3G.
(Yes that’s geeky me in the photo)
Thurdsay 10/7/08
12pm: Heads down to Melbourne T-Life Telstra Store to get iPhone 3G lowdown; confirmation of pricing, availability, when the store would be open and estimated amount of stock. My friend Chris and I were convinced that there would be some if we got there by 6am, which was the opening time.
5pm: Finished work. Head home to let wife know that I’m definitely getting an iPhone and attempt to convince her for the last time, that my current phone (iMate Ultimate 8502), was the best thing since sliced bread and she should consider using it…I fail. Regardless, I was determined to try out Apple’s new baby.
8pm: Prepared clothes for cold wintery Melbourne night/morning. Five layers including thermals. I wanted the iPhone but did not want to get sick. Sleeping bag was found somewhere under the stairs, and quickly found itself in my car’s passenger seat. Considered wearing my headlamp but shuddered at the possible ridicule from those less-geeky.
9pm: Heads to Bunnings after realising the wait would be way too long to be sitting on fridge-cold concrete for 8 hours. Finds a perfect foldable lounge chair and decides that $49 was a small amount to pay for comfort and increased chances of sleeping given the ability to fully recline.
9:30pm: Arrives home and checks everything is set. At this point, I conclude that I should just go since everything was packed and I was already wearing 4 out of 5 layers. Let’s wife know that she’ll be without her big human teddy bear and to pray for him; against sickness and inimical-would-be-muggers.
9:50pm: Leaves home and lets Chris (work friend) know his plan. Has to work hard to convince Chris of the merits of being at least in the top 5 in line; we’ll be processed first at 6am which meant that we could then be back at work without taking a full day off - yes that was our only intention, we did not plan on media attention at all.
10:10pm: Does a drive-by of Telstra Melbourne Store to find an asian guy with his mum to be the only ones in line. Happy to see this, finds a close-by location to park car and heads down to the little line with new foldable lounger in tow.
10:15pm: Joins queue and meets Alex and his mother. Finds out Alex is in fact queuing for his Uncle who happened to pay him $2k, to queue all night. Alex then confirms that his uncle will take his place at 5am. Didn’t have any problems with this as I just wanted my iPhone and then be at work on time. We talked about his stay in Australia and his dreams of being a golf teacher in China. He even offered me some fried rice.
10:30pm: Chris joins us and now three in line. Cold winter winds begin to make its presence felt. We shudder together and talk about our iPhone aspirations. Random people stop, talk and take photos of us. We agree that Melbourne is a great city with friendly people.
Friday 10/7/08
1am: Some clubbers heading home, find out our iPhone goals and scorn us for not just buying off eBay. An ignoramus also called us “gays” for camping out for technology. We question our perception of Melbourne.
2am: More people join the line. A son and dad team from Sale who drove 3 hours, tell us about living on the farm and how he made good money from buying and selling cows. He seemed genuine.
3am: Drunk dude talks to top 5 in line about his Telstra woes. Punches the glass door in a drunken stupor. Too tired to react we continue to absorb his tirade.
3:30am: I fall asleep only to waken to the shouts of a passing group of testosterone yelling “We’ll pick him up and take him to the end of line. We will if you want you know, we will!” They of course were referring to me. I of course, open my eyes and try to appear like I wasn’t aware of their evil intentions and give a wave.
4:40am: Telstra staff start to arrive and enter through side door.
5am: Media also start to arrive taking pictures and video. They zero-in on Alex the number one man and ask him 101 questions. Alex later confides that he is sick of interviews and just wants his uncle to arrive. At this point, I start to wonder what if I actually was the number one person and then decides glad I wasn’t since I did not look or feel my best - hat hair, unshaven, morning breath, wearing my geeky Melbourne Uni. vest and dreary eyes.
5:10am: Alex’s uncle arrives. Didn’t see any exchange of money, just an exchange of pleasantries. Uncle was apparently rich and big into property. He was holding a Louis-Vitton handbag, which I assumed was real albeit a bit feminine-looking for this old cantonese fellow.
5:30am: Telstra staff hand out lanyards with numbered tags to indicate our position in line. Mine of course was Number #2. Media again hone into Alex as soon as he gets #1 badge. Starbucks arrive on the scene taking orders paid by Telstra.
5:40am: I look around and the drunk guy who hated Telstra is wearing the Telstra branded lanyard, a #6 tag and is sipping on a large latte…
6am: I lead the countdown for staff to open doors. Led by staff, we file in and up the escalators. The bright lights were disorienting and the frenzy surreal. I am allocated a consultant, “Laura”, then follow her to an activation terminal. There were around 30 terminals around. Only the first 5-6 were allowed in first.
Drunk guy was enjoying the scenery too.
6:30am: Media are all of a sudden interested in me as I am informed that I am now in fact number 1 due to Alex’s uncle not having any ID. As soon as this announcement was made, I had a mobile phone handed to me with Hughsie and Kate on the other line. I was quizzed about my camp out and my use of the phone. Re: uses of iPhone I told them I would check email and my blog, at which Hughsie asked my blog details. Nice plug for my site.
6:45am: Final checks of the iPhone are made with Cameron, another staff member. David Moffat, Telstra big gun then does a check call to my iPhone and also tells the T-staff to fix me up with some accessories too. At this time, I get to play with the iPhone. First two things that struck me was the easy-to-use user interface and speed at which tasks were executed. It was “like at first sight”.
7am: More photo graphs with Herald Sun and The Age. Even get to do some video interviews with Channel 7 and 10. Then I was alone again, trying to figure out which way to get out of the building. As I exit, I see my friend Aaron who was just about to enter in as part of the next party of 5. He can’t believed that I was first.
7:20am: Get home. Shower then head to work.
8am: Get call from close friend, “You won’t believe what I saw when I powered on my computer this morning…you’re on the front page of The Age website“. I laugh at what would be a repeated phenomenon throughout the day.
12pm: After receiving many emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter and Plurk messages, I find myself on the phone with Channel 7 confirming my wife’s name for their news item.
5pm: Head home. Sleep, sleep, sleep.
Apologies for grammar and spelling. It’s 8am Saturday morning and I’m still sleepy…
Update: It’s Saturday morning (12/7/08) and there are still photos of me in the paper!
Get your iPhone Accessories at my shop.
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8 Responses to “The Day I Camped for the iPhone 3G and Got Famous”
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[...] You can catch the log of my iPhone 3G campout at my personal website. (Click here) [...]
wow !! that was almost as close as possible to what I experienced at “build - a - bear” workshop
hey, great experience. i love blogging about lifestyle experiments like this!
That is way cool bra’ nice to see a friendly face in all the “Iphonely Glory”
nice story pal… must have been an interesting night in the city!
Awesome time line, congrats on the free media coverage, FTW.
Holy moly Arnold! I didn’t realize it was you on the front page!
Congrats man, must have been one of the greatest moment in your life!
PS: Geeky indeed, queueing just for a silly iphone lol
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!