UPDATED: We got some comments from Dave Rahimi in Sydney. Blogger Dave Rahimi figured out a clever way to be the first person in the world to buy an iPhone 6.
Rahimi and his girlfriend, Jasmine Juan, flew thousands of miles from California to Sydney, Australia, to purchase the first two iPhone 6s to go on sale worldwide.
The couple just emerged from the Apple Store in Sydney, which was mobbed by a monster crowd of about 2,500 people. Some had camped outside the store for more than a week.
But Rahimi and Juan avoided the crowds and more or less walked right into the store.
Here’s how they did it.
The couple pre-ordered their phones in their native California as soon as Apple offered them for sale at midnight Friday 12th. Cleverly, they chose “store pickup” as the delivery option — and the store they chose was located on George Street in Sydney!
“I reserved the phones in California and came to pick them up on launch day in Sydney,” Rahimi explained by email from Sydney. “I made sure to get in the reserve line — not the crazy long non-reserve line — by 5:00 A.M Sydney time, and it happened to be that I was the first one there.”
They walked out with their phones before the main line had even moved. Very clever!
“It feels awesome, being one of the first to get a device that so many people, including myself, have been looking forward to,” he said. “I love mobile technology and being able to get probably the most sought after phone first is amazing.”
Rahimi runs a phone blog called PhoneBuff and YouTube channel by the same name. He bought the iPhones to review on his YouTube channel, which has more than 300,000 subscribers. His first video is a drop test, which can be seen here.
“I plan on doing a lot of other coverage on my YouTube channel in the near future,” he said.
The iPhone 6 is shaping up to be a monster hit. Massive lines are forming at Apple Stores around the world and Android users are reportedly trading in their devices in large numbers.
The doors at the Sydney store opened at 8 a.m.
Angela Ahrendts, head of Apple’s retail operation, also flew to Australia to witness the iPhone 6 frenzy. “Phenomenal start to a historic day and an honor to be with our incredible team and first customers in Sydney,” she tweeted.
Phenomenal start to a historic day and an honor to be with our incredible team and first customers in Sydney. pic.twitter.com/28aww07wGj
— Angela Ahrendts (@AngelaAhrendts) September 18, 2014
Via: Queensland Times
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 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.
40 responses to “The clever way this guy got the first iPhone 6 in the world”
Clever and more than a bit obsessive. It’s. Just. A. Phone.
The area is a good vacation spot.. Think. About. It.
You read the whole article, right? The guy has a YT channel with 300k subscribers, so this is also a wise business decision. But hey, this is Cult of Mac, so everyone mentioned must be a fanboi whacko…
just for drop tests btw…
His flight is deductible as a business expense…..and it’s Sydney…..and he’s getting coverage for his YT Channel……and you’re on here reading this article.
Why not New Zealand? They started selling on the same day if I’m not mistaken and they are 2 hours ahead of Sydney.
Nope, NZ is not in the first 9 countries.
So the $399 iphone 6 just became a $2000 phone after paid for air fare and a hotel room. Not my definition of clever IMO.
I’d lay odds there were other agenda items for the trip. :) Good for them.
like a vacation, to go along with those nice to iPhone 6 camera’s they just picked up.
Yep.. sounds like a good idea to me if I had a vacation I wanted to plan.. right around an iPhone releasee.. :D
Zactly!
Actually, I take it aaallllll back. The guy is indeed a complete MORON. He flew all the way to buy the first two phone and then “drop” them for his video. Stupid.
Sometimes, one has to wonder why natural selection sometimes takes so long.
The advertising on his youtube account might lighten the load.
How silly a summary. The guy was brilliant. He has a blog so the trip is a write off. He goes to beautiful Sydney with his girlfriend and the publicity for his site and channel has paid his investment back many times over. Up the level of your analytical game before you criticize.
Think about it. He flew to australia, which can now be turned into a vacation. He got one of the first iphone 6 for his business and now his whole trip is tax deductible. I’d say that is pretty smart.
Not very clever! They’re in for a rude awakening when the iPhones don’t connect thru LTE in America. LTE bands in Australia are different from those in the US. The phones will work – make/receive calls, SMS, FaceTime, etc – but Internet connection will be 3G speeds only!
Are you for real? You don’t know much about iPhone.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
iPhone especially iPhone 6 supports many LTE bands. For example, I bought my unlocked 5s from Apple Store Singapore, and has no problem with LTE when I bought AT&T prepaid SIM in US early this year.
Really Todd? A wiki that says nothing about iPhone? I like Tallest Skil’s link better.
It’s actually “George St, Sydney”, not “Victoria St, Sydney” :)
Idiots.
I did the same thing. Was in and out in 20 mins :)
Think. Differently. :)
lol, he gets the first new iPhone 6 because he just want to do a drop testing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGxlm82hWDM&list=UUhYU73igK5wQhWAXPh3X8PA
I hate these videos. Here I am saving up like mad to get one and these guys drop the first one they get.
The guy’s an idiot. I’m sure he’s got a huge ad at yellowpages.com under MORON.
There’s a market for Drop test videos, if not these guys won’t waste their time
& money on this. But the evil monkey inside me want’s the video to get interrupted in middle, so that he end’s with a broken phone but no video to upload :D
i just saw he did a drop test with both of them and posted on youtube
He may of been the first person to buy his phone from an apple store but he wasnt the first person to get it…..some of us smarter people pre ordered online with our telcos mine arrived 7am this morning……and the guy I was talking to yesterday about the phone already had one ……so this guy wasted alot of money for what……nothing
This reeks of attention deprivation and stunted social skills.
“…us smarter people…”
and
‘Some guy I know got it before the official release date.’
Yeah, this guy wasted his money for nothing because you got a phone at 7am. Moron.
Forgive me if I am interpreting this incorrectly but are you taking a dig at me mate…..Let me clear a couple of things up… I preordered my phone like everyone else, except I did it online, like again so many others. I was by no means the first person to receive a phone this morning the couriers nation wide were kept busy. The guy I was talking to re the phone yesterday had his as he worked for a very large telco and it slipped they were given them ahead of time …….I have by no means stunted social skills nor attention deprivation as you put it. However I do find stupidity in people who are travelling the globe to get what they believe is the first Iphone to be sold in the world.
Guess Kahney meant iPhone6’s and not iPhone6s. I hope the missing apostrophe doesn’t start another queue for 6s :P
So he’s doing a series of review videos and he *starts* with a drop test? That doesn’t sound too clever.
Since it was for his business I understand. The flight and all the money he spent is all tax deductible. Smart. If it was just for his personal joy of owning an iphone then he would have been considered an idiot. I’m sure his youtube channel will get many hits and money if he puts up the review soon.
THE FIRST IPHONE JUST GOT DROPPED :3
Very Clever!!!
“The iPhone 6 is shaping up to be a monster hit. Massive lines are forming at Apple Stores around the world and Android users are reportedly trading in their devices in large numbers.”
– Woop woop, it’s starting! The Apple world. Can’t believe all it required was a bigger screen.. I sure hoped for a 4″ model, as I don’t need more for my tiny hands :D
hes the first guy to take it back to get it fixed!
The apple shop is on George street, Sydney and not Victoria street.
Who gives a f***?