Mike Wuerthele
Lines have already started to form at many Apple stores world-wide, with the Orchard Road store in Singapore and a pair of stores in Japan already having a massive queue of hundreds of people.
The Orchard Road store started seeing a line form on Wednesday afternoon, according to Channel News Asia. By the late afternoon and early evening, the line corrals were in place. Wristbands were being given to line participants, with people afforded an hour break at a time, before sacrificing their place in line.
More than one line participant said that they were planning on selling the iPhone X on the internet — or would sell their spot in line if the price was right.
Queues began on Wednesday night at other locations as well. Twitter user Elise Hu reports that there is a line "a block down" from the Tokyo Ginza store.
Already a block down from the Tokyo Ginza Apple Store and the line for iphoneX is still going https://t.co/OJDIEbp2ZN
— Elise Hu (@elisewho) November 2, 2017
At the Shinsaibashi Apple Store in Osaka, the line extends two blocks, as reported by Kaylee Dayo.
MASSIVE lines at the Shinsaibashi Apple Store in Osaka! It's 10:30pm and the line goes TWO BLOCKS. Easily 200-300 people.#iPhoneX pic.twitter.com/KqQkXvmjeo
— Kaylee (@kayleedayo) November 2, 2017
The Sydney central Apple store had a large line on October 30, as spotted by Nick Parfene.
Apple Store queue continues to grow #iPhoneX pic.twitter.com/Rd8MaSzIXx
— Nick Parfene (@nicktmro) October 30, 2017
Dalton King also noted on Wednesday that there were a few fans in line already outside the Palo Alto, Calif. store.
True Apple fans wait in line for #iPhoneX @Apple #2DaysToGo pic.twitter.com/YV1Pr8dR2Q
— Dalton King (@LVDalton22) November 1, 2017
Spot checks of several Apple stores on the east coast of the U.S. note that lines have formed either on Thursday morning because of mall security restrictions, or on Wednesday evening in the case of stand-alone stores.
Apple announced that there would be a quantity of iPhone X units at retail stores for walk-in customers. It is unclear how many units will be at any given store. There were very few of the iPhone 7 Plus at retail for launch in 2016.
Christine McKee
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26 Comments
Why are lines forming for the iPhone X? I'm certain a few genius analysts had said, "No one will be paying $999 for an iPhone when you can get an equivalent flagship Android smartphone for almost half the price." "Also, consumers are scared of using Face ID because it's a relatively new technology and they're never going to buy an iPhone without Touch ID?" "Everyone hates that monstrous notch which is causing Steve Jobs to turn over in his grave." "No mere mortal can afford to pay that much money for a smartphone!" /s
Have consumers stopped using credit cards? Although analysts and big investors are quite worried about Apple's gloomy future, I'm sure every iPhone X in stock will be sold out by the end of the day. It's rather unlikely any flagship Android smartphone this year will sell out as quickly. In the end, an iPhone X is still an iPhone and will likely sell in the tens of millions of units and as fast as Foxconn can turn them out.
My version of a "line" will be sitting on my back porch with a glass of scotch waiting for brown santa to ring my doorbell. :smiley:
Boom! Forget about the line.
Call me crazy, but something tells me people want this phone.