Hundreds of Shoppers Line Up Early For Grab At First iPhone 6 Allocations

Police on hand for crowd control had set up stanchions near the store and yellow police tape farther down the block to keep the line orderly. At 9 a.m., the line wound around the block to 10th Avenue between 16th and 17th streets. At 10:15, police we spoke to estimated attendance at 600-700. That was nothing, one told us. The line was “way longer” at the flagship store uptown, he said.

Most notable at first glance was the very high proportion of customers of apparent Asian extraction, many of whom had come in groups. Most of those waiting wouldn’t speak to us, either turning away when we tried to ask questions or appearing not to speak English. An exception was Henry, 24, who stood next in line to enter the store, held back by an Apple employee gatekeeper. Henry had arrived at 4 p.m. Thursday and was beseeching the Apple guard to allow him in the store to use the bathroom. She told him that if she let him in for that purpose, he'd have to go the end of the line when he came back out. Henry chose to stay in line. He told us he was buying the phone for his mother, who lives in China, since the phone won’t be available there for a while.

Mary, a middle-aged New Yorker, referring to the majority of Asian customers, said, “That’s your story. The phones are all going to overseas markets,” she said. “It’s the value of scarcity.” Mary called herself the “last person in America with a working iPhone 3” and said she was “inclined” to get the iPhone 6 Plus for the larger screen. That’s because she’s arthritic and thinks it will be easier to use, “not because I have to have the newest and shiniest thing,” she said. But she planned to check the weight first. If it’s too heavy, she would go for the 6 instead.

Alex, 33, in New York on vacation from Norway, decided to brave the line for a stab at an iPhone 6 since the phone isn’t yet available in his country. He had sights set on the 64 GB iPhone 6 rather than the Plus, which is “too big.” He’s replacing his iPhone 4, the backup for his stolen 5s. He'll keep the 4 “for when the 6 is stolen,” he joked. Reacting to the long line, Alex cited the crowd composition and conjectured that many of the phones would wind up “on the black market."

When we came across Stephen, 23, and his friends, he was shouting ahead about people “skipping in line” and holding places in line for others. Stephen had seen several incidents where people swapped $20 bills for spots in line, he said. Patience was wearing thin because he had arrived at 3:30 a.m. and “only moved five feet.” The phone wasn’t for him but for his boss, who had given him the day off to wait in line.

Evan, 24, had arrived at 2:30 a.m. and came prepared with his girlfriend with fold-up chairs. He was gunning for the iPhone 6 in gold to replace his gold 5s, he said. He’s a repeat first-day iPhone buyer but said this time “is crazy. Next year I'm going to buy online,” he said.

A few spots from Evan we met an off-duty Apple employee, who told us, along with other Apple employees who were working, that he wasn’t allowed to speak to the press. One group of Apple employees appeared to have chargers with them, perhaps as a service to refuel the phones of those waiting, but they didn’t answer our question.

As we moved along the sidewalk, police showed up to tidy the line and try to bring calm to a bunched-up section of shoppers growing restless with the wait. “Relax,” one of the policeman kept repeating, as he tried to streamline the bunch to make room for pedestrian traffic on the busy street.

William, in his early 20s, was doing his best to minimize the need for relief. He had arrived Thursday night at 8:30 and was nursing the same water bottle he started at 5 p.m. the day before so he wouldn’t need to find a bathroom. “I've been trying to eat as little as possible, too,” he said.

Most of those we interviewed were hoping to pick up the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 rather than the 5.5-inch 6 Plus, and we were surprised to hear most of the men we spoke to say they preferred the smaller size. We heard “it’s too big” for a pocket a number of times, and one person said he had a tablet so he didn’t need a large phone, too.

Only one person we spoke to, Rob, 44, was willing to ditch the line and leave without a phone. Rob was on the far shorter “reservation” line, having pre-ordered the 16 GB iPhone 6 online. “They told me I could pick it up today, but if it’s going to take 1-1/2 hours, I'll leave and come back tomorrow,” he said. “This is insane.”

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Hopping on the news item that went viral Friday that customer Jack Cooksey was first through the doors at the Apple store in Perth, Australia, but became one of the first people in the world to drop his new iPhone 6, insurance broker Protect Your Bubble used the opportunity to hawk its extended warranty for protection against drops and spills for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The $5.99 per month insurance policy includes unlimited claims, coverage for up to 36 months from the phone’s purchase date, and live customer support located in the U.S., the company said. According to David Anderson, director of product development, “The larger size of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus may make it easier for users to drop and damage their phone. The round, non-defined edges will make it a bit harder to grasp,” and the phones could easily “slip out of your hand,” he said. Conventional iPhone users adjusting to the new iOS software will need to adapt their typing and keypad skills, “further increasing the chance for phone drops,” he said.