Ann Arbor Apple Store: 9:20 a.m., and we can see the store

iPhone 3G - we see the store!

This is why I’m an Apple person: the nice lady who has been running up and down the line, answering questions, just brought me a hot coffee with cream. Apple has always been great in terms of user experience, but not they can add “people waiting in line” experience, too.

iPhone 3G - Apple rep

It’s 9:20 a.m., and a few people have trickled out of the Briarwood Mall Apple Store with the sleek, white iPhone 3G bags in-hand. One guy stopped to see a buddy in line, and compared his new iPhone with his friend’s “old” iPhone.

I talked with a lady from Ann Arbor who has been a Mac person since the days of the beige G3. “I don’t know why everyone’s not a Mac person,” she said, and it’s hard to argue with that. She had made fewer decisions than I had: no phone choice, no AT&T plan choice, not even the color concerned her. “I have a whole half-hour or so to think about it,” she said. You can’t help admire that kind of live-for-the-moment philosophy.

iPhone 3G - too much excitement

The store is letting in groups of about six or seven at a time, and where I’m standing, near the end of the line, we probably have another hour to go. There are at least several hundred people here. The line doesn’t seem to be growing much, either: whoever wanted an iPhone 3G this bad is already here and waiting. The Detroit Free press claims Apple can handle 100 customers an hour, which seems about right.

Our group is surely a curiosity to the walkers in the mall. “Kids these days,” they must be thinking, but truthfully all ages are represented here. Apple is an egalitarian company.

We’re almost to the amusement-park-style stanchions, which shows we’re “almost there,” whatever that means.

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