Some have noted that the lines for the iPhone 4S on Friday were disappointingly short. Apple might have sold a record 4 million devices in four days, but the launch day lines were nothing compared to those for the iPhone 4 or the iPad 2.
But there was one place where the lines went around the block — and no one seems to have reported it yet.
In most places, the lines for the iPhone 4S were nothing compared to previous Apple product launches. In San Francisco, for example, the 300 people or so that lined up all had their iPhones about 30 minutes after the store opened.
The relatively short lines were due to several factors, including the fact that the iPhone 4S was on sale at a wide variety of outlets and not just the Apple Store — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Target, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Walmart, etc.
But more importantly, the 4S was available for preorder, which the iPad 2 was not. That means a lot of customers preordered their phone for delivery by UPS.
But many of those people weren’t home on Friday to receive their order. The crazy lines for the 4S weren’t at Apple, but at UPS late into Friday night.
A friend in the East Bay said he ditched the line at his local UPS and 8:40pm when there were still more than 100 people in front of him.
Look at the photo above. The pickup point is off the frame to the right, near the blue light.
“I estimated about 100 people in line ahead of us, plus 20 or so behind us when we finally ditched the line,” he said.
UPS hasn’t released any numbers about the number of iPhone 4Ss it delivered on Friday, or how late its package centers stayed open on Friday night. We’ve reached out to UPS for some numbers and comment, and will update this post.
Thanks Ken!
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
