After spending about an hour and a half waiting in line I got an iPhone no problem. I hate lines in general. I mean I can see the point if you’re at Disneyland and want to ride space mountain but usually I try to avoid lines. Particularly lines wherein I get hot and sweaty while waiting to give people my money in exchange for their product. But hey, I’m writing a book right? Gotta have an iPhone for the book.
So I did the necessary line standing, got into a Cingular Store and got the iPhone. There were maybe 40 people in line. That doesn’t sound like much but where I live (Knoxville, TN) Cingular (oh hell, AT&T) cellular service isn’t highly regarded. In general, the cell preferences are as follows:
Verizon
Sprint
A string and two cans
Yelling
Cingular
Rumor has it that some people prefer to communicate with attempted telepathy rather than use Cingular. The problem isn’t with the Cingular customer service, the reps in Knoxville are very polite and just about everything you’d hope they’d be but the signal leaves something to be desired. That something is existence by the way.
Which is going the long way around to say: I didn’t expect much trouble scoring an iPhone in Knoxville. Two hours after the iPhone went on sale there was no line and iPhones were available. No surprise right? Well, maybe for Knoxville but if you look at it turns out everyone will have iPhones tomorrow
Here’s the thing. This is the coolest gadget I’ve ever seen. If I had known the iPhone would be this good I would have pitched a tent back in May. I was scoffing at the line standers while standing in line (well, call me a hypocrite but I had a reason to get the thing). An hour with the iPhone convinced me otherwise. It is a better iPod than your iPod. It is a better picture viewer than iPhoto. It is years ahead of the RAZR and even includes all the required vowels.
How great is the iPhone? It is the best thing Apple has ever done and not by just a little, it is the best thing the company has done by a longshot. When the original Mac came out it introduced the GUI to the world, when the iPhone came out it introduced the world to the notion that a multipurposed machine didn’t have to suck.
An example would be useful. You’ve got a Swiss Army knife right? The knife does everything. But nothing very well. If you want to whittle (and who doesn’t?) you’re better served by other knives. You want to scale a fish? A dedicated fish scaler will get the job done faster. And that plastic toothpick thing isn’t the most useful addition. Most people figure that is the price you pay for flexibility. With the iPhone there aren’t any tradeoffs. If Apple designed a Swiss Army Knife the Swiss wouldn’t be neutral because their knives would kick so much ass they could take over the world just by pointing to their knife pocket.
Call me blown away. Steve Jobs you magnificent bastard!
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