June 29, 2007

Bloggers, CEOs And Everyone Else Camping Out for the iPhone

Nick Gonzalez

40 comments »

As iPhone anticipation reaches a fever pitch, we are getting flooded with reports of people lining up to nab their own wonder phone. A quick trip down to the valley’s Apple store in Palo Alto shows the fervor taking over the valley.

CrunchGear even caught blogger Robert Scoble, second in line only to his son, looking to trade in his $750 N95 3G 5MP camera phone for the $600 2MP camera edge-only iPhone. He was joined by Zoomr CEO Thomas Hawk and founder Kristopher Tate, who were running crowd control by handing out numbered tags. They were later joined from Diggnation’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who were also covering the controlled chaos.

You can see live coverage of the iLines on Ustream and Justin.tv. They’ll all be waiting in line until the iPhone goes on sale today, June 29, at 6:00 p.m.

Here are some photos:

Image credit, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme

Sphere It

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LifesPerspective Business Blog » Apple iPhone - Marketing Campaign to Die For

July 3rd, 2007 at 8:30 am

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Andrew

June 29th, 2007 at 12:16 am

is their business doing so well, that they can have their CEO spend days(I’m guessing because they are at the start of the line) standing out in front of a store?
BEAVERTON_HUSTLA

June 29th, 2007 at 12:16 am

SON,

THE N95′S 3G WCDMA RADIO ONLY OPERATES ON 2100MHZ: A FREQUENCY NOT UTILIZED HERE IN THE USA.

B_H,
HELIO OCEAN
Thomas Hawk

June 29th, 2007 at 12:22 am

is their business doing so well, that they can have their CEO spend days(I’m guessing because they are at the start of the line) standing out in front of a store?

Andrew, actually Kristopher will be launching some new features live from the iPhone launch. I don’t code and as CEO focusing on marketing, I’ll tell you getting Zooomr’s name on CNBC and as a sticker on every single person down here waiting for a phone is not bad PR.
Rodney Rumford

June 29th, 2007 at 12:23 am

Nice photos… it is a blast to feel like you are there…. watching Scoble on zooomr..

He has had some amazing conversations tonight with some great people. Bill Atchinson talk with robert was soooo cool.

cheers!
myke

June 29th, 2007 at 12:27 am

lol at them nerds wasting thier money on a phones thats gonna be buggy
rod / techfold.com

June 29th, 2007 at 12:32 am

Ah yes. Its very reassuring to see that people haven’t wised-up to marketing.
netmuse

June 29th, 2007 at 12:50 am

Hmmm obviously these CEOs and Blogstars aren’t that important? Otherwise wouldn’t Apple send them complementary iphones? Just wondering!
Are you rich?

June 29th, 2007 at 12:54 am

$59.99 monthly plan. hmmm.

Can you afford apartment, car gasoline, electric bills, phone bills, cable bills, food, and local milk cost?

Hell no. Middle class people can’t afford it either. When prices go extremely high… stockmarket will crash.
tropikal

June 29th, 2007 at 1:03 am

Goodness, its a stupid cellphone for God’s sake. Some of you APPLE NERDS need to get a NEW LIFE. People are dying in Africa for Godsakes.
Wes

June 29th, 2007 at 1:12 am

I am happy I don’t have to go through this because it will be a while before the iPhone hits my shores.
Chadwick

June 29th, 2007 at 1:17 am

People, come on… it’s a phone.
thaumata

June 29th, 2007 at 1:22 am

Hahaha… don’t these guys have interns for this?? Or at the very least, how come I don’t see all kinds of free food, caffeine and swag? I’ve been to parties in the valley… something is wrong here. KRIS! GET BACK TO WORK! If you have so much time on your hands, come help us. I mean, we’ve got a launch this week. Bring me an iphone while you’re at it, punk.
Mike

June 29th, 2007 at 1:26 am

There were 6 people camping out at the AT&T store 7mins from my house and that was at 11:45pm.
Fat Free Milk

June 29th, 2007 at 1:54 am

I got a little sad at this…you can’t change the world and I can’t change myself either, but…I wish you Liza Minelli and Wampa Screams, invading your dreams for the rest or your iLifes. I just ithrew up in my imouth a little…
Fat Free Milk

June 29th, 2007 at 1:56 am

or = of = Carl Orff = http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfg.....freemilk75
Nick Tan

June 29th, 2007 at 2:39 am

So it’s true that the iPhone will help you get laid?
Mario Ruiz

June 29th, 2007 at 3:20 am

For me this is just the first step. Look at Steve picture for today: http://www.oursheet.com
Robert Scoble

June 29th, 2007 at 3:44 am

Here’s my report from the line: http://scobleizer.com/2007/06/.....-the-line/
Spiel

June 29th, 2007 at 4:14 am

Son [BEAVERTON_HUSTLA],

That only goes to show you the ignorance of this country. The FCC has been setting on its a*s for too long to open up the 2100 band and auction it to carriers.

At least the Nokia N95 and my N80 come with BOTH 3G and Edge!
AK

June 29th, 2007 at 4:35 am

Who’s going to bet on this statement… “Microsoft comes up with an iPhone clone by next year and beats iPhone”
lawrence

June 29th, 2007 at 5:55 am

this is ridiculous standing in line like this for hours for just an electronic device.

more will come later - it’s not like it’s limited concert seats or what not.

…just ridiculous.
paid Bum.

June 29th, 2007 at 5:58 am

who’s that bum?

i think someone paid him to wait in line, just so he could instantly flip his iphone purchase on ebay…same thing people did with playstations and xboxes during their launch.
Jay

June 29th, 2007 at 6:58 am

@22 - That’s messed up. Are you suggesting he’s a bum just cause he’s black? Shame on you…
Concrete Stain

June 29th, 2007 at 7:29 am

Iphone / the new chuck norris

- I heard Iphone could impregnate women; who have had their tubes tied.

- Heard Iphone was also a portable MRI machine also

- Iphone can clean drinking water for 0 cents/gallon

-RB

(top 2 taken from GlennBeck)
Marco

June 29th, 2007 at 7:48 am

I think the internet hype will not reflect on the sales this time. Good luck for Apple.
randy

June 29th, 2007 at 8:07 am

After seeing these people, I have decided NOT to get an iPhone. It’s just not cool now.
vaspers the grate

June 29th, 2007 at 8:43 am

Sad to see the lemmings line up for the cliff.

iPhone is shit.

iPhone: no video, EDGE/WiFi reliant, horrible sound quality, sluggish network speed, annoyingly tiny “keyboard” (need stylus or pencil), smudgey, lousy 2 megapixel camera, etc.

What a load of hype for a mediocre product.
nitsuj

June 29th, 2007 at 9:02 am

It’s probably the first time a lot of those guys have camped in their lives.
nitsuj

June 29th, 2007 at 9:03 am

or should i say ‘first time in their lives they’ve camped’? bah, whatever, need coffee before i start policing my grammar.
Gaurav

June 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am

Nick - it is Zooomr not zoomr
Lacey

June 29th, 2007 at 10:52 am

Did anyone else see Kevin Rose waiting in line for the iPhone? http://www.adamostrow.com/adam.....-on-c.html
:: r y a n ::

June 29th, 2007 at 11:20 am

I just love companies that shamelessly promote like that. Ranks up there with coming back to my car in the morning to find it stuffed full of club//rave flyers or when you’re at a party and everyone is trying to push their stupid flyer on you.

I’m all about promotions, but this is just tacky.
Alan Wilensky

June 29th, 2007 at 11:42 am

The Burlingame CA store had only a few people in beach chairs: I asked them why they couldn’t wait, what was so important about a non-3g phone, cant they get it on-line? A few days later?

I couldn’t get a coherent answer……..they were all just foaming at the mouth - Im not the biggest social activist, but there are so many problems in the world, and just issues of living your life right, that it is unseemly, so it seems to me, to camp out for an overpriced, flawed product.

Jobs is truly the leading product marketing innovator and cultural evangelist in the history of technology hard goods to inspire such rabid loyalty and fervor. I mean, really folks, the media and tech press too - do you have no shame, no control or sense of perspective?

Where is the total perspective vortex when you really need it?
Drama 2.0

June 29th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

I think Apple needs to get some real eye candy out there. These people are going to drive away business!
Matt Keegan

June 29th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

I think I’ll wait on this one. Version 2 is likely to be better, cheaper, and have worked all of the kinks out. Plus, I can’t afford to be trendy right now!
pud

June 29th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

i’m confused. i drove by the apple store in san francisco and there are like 40 people on line. is there some reason to believe that the store won’t have enough iphones for everyone?

in other words, who’s to say i couldn’t just stroll by at 7:30 pm and buy one? or for that matter, pick one up tomorrow?

please explain.
tekwek

June 29th, 2007 at 3:32 pm

@Jay…..dude that guy is a bum….I work on Univ. ave and he camps outside every store and he’ll ask you for change 5 times if you cross his path five times during the day…..sometimes he asks for cigs too….mixes it up for variety

iPhone will be a rage in Palo Alto bum community…..
Jay

June 29th, 2007 at 4:21 pm

@37 I only kid. I saw him too when I visited Palo Alto =).
David Mackey

June 29th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

Pretty smart PR for Zoomr.