How I got a iPhone 3G on the day they came out
Posted on tirsdag, januar 13, 2009 @ kl. 03.27 by david
I happen to be lucky sometimes. This time I had a feeling.
Since the WWDC in 2007 and the announcement of the first generation iPhone, I have been following along to see if the mobile phone worked as advertised. The demo was amazing! This product got me looking at Apple when purchasing my new computer. My next computer Mac or PC?
I have been a long time handheld fan, my first "gadget" was a Dell AXIM X5
- Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 Premium
- Intel XScale 400Mhz processor
- TFT 3.5 inch Touch Screen @ 320x240 resolution
- ASUS SpaceLink Wireless LAN Compact Flash Card
Model: WL-110 - 2GB SD Card for Music
- E-mail, Internet Explorer v4
- Contacts, Calendar, Tasks
I went to a few meetings of a Pocket PC User's Group in Atlanta, GA to find out how to use my AXIM X5 back in 2002 and met Ed Hardy from Brighthand.com.
Since this handheld was only a PDA, my mobile phone has been a Nokia 6600 that was bought in 2004 from NetCom.
- Camera - 640 x 480 resolution, Zoom, Night Vision
- Video Camera
- Bluetooth / Infrared
- E-mail, SMS, MMS, WAP browser
- Contacts, Calendar, Tasks
I have been actively using my Dell AXIM X5 and Nokia 6600 until July 11th 2008, when I bought the new iPhone 3G.
Its almost criminal that I was even able to purchase one, but I have a new 8GB iPhone 3G on July 11th, 2008 at 12:30pm in Trondheim, Norway.
Its quite a funny story. Since WWDC 2008, I had been reading all about the iPhone 3G and drooling like all the other idiots, and knew that it was a big deal.
5 events during the 11th of July made my purchasing an iPhone 3G a reality.
- On the morning of Friday the 11th of July, my girlfriend Liv and I woke up at 7am. I wanted to catch the 7:52am train from Verdal to Trondheim, but her hair wasn't cooperating so we took the 8:52am train instead. I was kinda irritated because its a 1.5 hour train ride, so I knew we would be there around 11:30am instead of 10:30am like I had hoped. The iPhone went on sale in 2 locations in Trondheim, 9:00am and 10:00am, so I had a feeling I might not get a phone that day. Later train :)
- We got off the train at 11:30am and decided to go to the Solsiden shopping mall, I had a feeling that everyone would be at the other location at Trondheim Torg, so I tried my luck at Solsiden instead of Trondheim Torg :)
- There were 20 people waiting outside the store, so I was positive until I saw that they had a numbered ticket in their hand. I guess these "tickets" were handed out at 10:00am to people waiting outside the store. Some of the people had been waiting outside since 7am. So I went to the front of the line and asked the guy working at the store about these tickets, and he said that they were not giving out anymore tickets because they only had about 40-50 iPhones in the store. "Ok thanks", I told him and looked inside at the crazy people who had been there since 7am. The girl standing next to me, who was "next" to go into the store said to me, "Hey, if you want you can have my ticket for Trondheim Torg, I got in here instead and dont need it anymore". The guy working there said that the number "54" that I had, was a pretty good chance at the other store since they had 50-60 phones there. So I had my GOLDEN TICKET number 54 :)
- 11:45am - walked really fast with Liv to Trondheim Torg and the Telebutikken. The shop is tiny, and holds about 10 people max with 2 guys working the counter and 2 cute girls keeping everyone calm on a warm summer day. There were 2 lines, with about 20 people, so I asked one of the girls about what do I do with ticket number 54? She told me to stand in front of about 15 people who were trying their luck without a ticket, and right at the door of the shop. I was almost in! They were still at number 34, but there were only about 10 people in the store, so there was still a chance!
- It looked like they were running low around 12:15pm or so and it was getting close as others were showing up with the numbers in the 40s. Well the guy ahead of me had number 43 and was waiting for a 16GB iPhone, so when they told us "This is the last 16GB iPhone in the store" he was a bit pissed off. He stood there thinking about the 8GB model and decided to leave, so he turned around and told me, "Here you go. If you want number 43 you can have it. I'll wait until the have the 16GB model". Ticket number 54 to ticket number 43 :) so at 12:30pm I was finally at the counter, and bought my very own iPhone 3G with the NetCom iTalk Small plan. It took around 10 minutes or so but went smoothly and was fully charged and ready to go. :)
Afterwards we were starving and so I bought Liv and I a victory lunch at Burger King and shook our heads at how lucky I was that day.
