Today is iPad 2 day and like the rest of you I got up early today. I’d say way to early since it was 2:45 am CST and I was surprised to find out that my alarm clock on my iPhone 4 could be set to such an early hour. The engineers at Apple HQ in Cupertino could not have done a better job on that alarm, but for once I was wishing they’d screwed it up since I think it should be a crime for an alarm clock to ring before 5:00 am.
I dragged myself out of bed, got ready to seize the day, and hurried over to my Mac Mini and ordered an iPad 2 64GB Wi-fi + 3G (AT&T) in black from the online Apple Store. The wait time on that order for shipment was 3-5 days, a half-hour after that new orders were shipping in 5-7 days, and finally orders are now shipping in 2 to 3 weeks. Ouch. It looks like Apple has another home run.
I have my order placed. I’ll get my iPad 2 eventually and so I head off to work. Now fast forward to 11:00 am CST and my friend Craig calls. He tells me he is on the way to the local Apple Store located outside of Houston in Friendswood, Texas at the Baybrook Mall. He arrives to find that the line is incredibly short. It certainly isn’t even a fraction in size of the line for the iPhone 4 rollout.
So I did what any Apple Fan Boy would do and I headed over to stand in line this afternoon. Along with the rest of the folks interested in the iPad 2.
In Houston it looks like the best place to grab an iPad 2 was the Apple store, since a poll of local Best Buy, Target, and Walmart stores turned up the fact that none of these retailers had enough iPad stock. Walmart wasn’t even carrying every model, since their stock tended to lean towards Wi-Fi only models and many of their stores won’t have any at all. Target advised me that the local store was only going to have five units at their store and no accessories available on launch day.
Were you part of iPad 2 day in this or another part of Houston? If so please leave a comment about your experience with buying an iPad 2 in Houston today.
David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET’s iPhoneatlas.com, MacLife.com, CultofMac.com, BYTE.com and recently for aNewDoman.net. He comes to Cult of Mac’s website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin or see what he’s up to now at davidwmartin.com.
22 responses to “Apple Store Baybrook Houston — Lines are Small, But Growing”
I just got the 1st one of the 5 units available at the Target at I-10 and Taylor. They only had 5 units. All Black, WiFi, 64Gb. Got there just before 4pm and was 1st in line. All 5 units sold at 5pm on the dot. There were probably 10 people that came up to the counter asking if any were available after there were 5 of us all already in line for the 5 available.
Confused++ were there 5 available at that Target, or more?
Hey, I was just a few people ahead of you in line!
DO NOT BUY AN iPAD 2.0
To see why:
http://besttechtoday.blogspot….
Got in line at 3:00 in Durham, NC at the Apple store. I was probably behind about 200 people. The Verizon 16 GB models sold out first, very quickly. Verizon 32 GB sold out when I was second in line. I got the 64 GB AT&T model, but it was only available in white. Was out by 6:00…
All the Targets in Houston except 1 had only 5 units available.
Nest Buy in whacky Waco TX received (they said) just twent units: 5 each W/B 16G, 5 32G Black, and 5 64G models. Odd selection. Plenty of iCovers, although not all Dolores and skewed to the leather choices. Three different 3rd party suppliers also had covers available.
This is TEXAS and I wanted puke Orange. Nope no gottie! No display models so no iCover for now, really like to see it work. My first gen has been in Apple’s case since a month after purchase 11 months ago, great protection, so unsure if I can be happy with just a ‘lid.’
Snatched the last 16G whitey thanks to a friend in line who couldn’t stand less than 32G, all gone at that spot. They could’ve sold four times that easily by five. Probably only 40 people in line at 4:15.
Snappy, most websites load quicker. Camera not much in low light, not toyed with much at this point. Video a bit sharper. Weight only a bit noticeably different, though the grip feels even more natural; is it just me or is this model actually less narrow? Feels and looks like, maybe due to thiness?
Screen seems a little less sensitive, links requiring firm taps to implement. Small text notably pixely — Apple really needs to grant hi-res screen option or upgrade. Maybe next year.
I was at First Colony in Sugar Land at launch time. The line was at least 250 – 300 deep, and was gone within 30 minutes or so of the store re-opening — when the dreaded “sorry, we’re sold out for today” sign went up.
They really did a great job building buzz around the event — blackout curtains hiding the store before opening, and all staff on hand (it seemed packed inside even before they let the customers in).
I thought about getting one today, but am really happy that I placed an online order at 5 this morning, when the delivery time was still 3-5 business days.
I wasn’t expecting to buy one, but changed my mind on a whim at 5:30p on launch day. Went to Galleria best buy – line around the building. Rep told me unless I wanted a WiFi only 64GB model, I was out of luck. Called BB customer service – every store in houston sold out (so they said). Called Target – every store out. Checked walmart.com – every store out.
Finallly, I called Frys. They told me over the phone that if I went in and pre-ordered one, it would be here by tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. When I got there, it was a different story. They said they couldn’t promise any time frame, but they get shipments everyday and they expected it to be less than a week. I went ahead and pre-ordered. The cashier was cool enough to check the pre-order list – he wouldn’t tell me how many people were ahead, but he said it was a short list.
I got a report from a friend that the Houston Galleria apple store had a line of about 400 around 630p.
I (and many others in the Buffalo NY Store) have had the worst Apple experience ever.
I was roughly number 200 out of 350 people (Apple counted) and to keep the crowd excited, Apple issued iPad vouchers around four o’ clock, re-assuring the people to stay in line, because once you own a voucher, you’ll get a device. So far, so good.
The problem: This voucher did NOT specify the model, but one out of 18 flavors, meaning that there was a risk that you’ll only get what’ s left once it was your turn. And sure enough the models ran out pretty soon, starting with all ATT versions, thus leaving people on a budget only expensive versions, the huge canadian crowd with only unusable Verizon CDMA models, existing ATT plan customers without usable devices and me without anything close what I wanted and came for.
Many dozens went out empty handed only after having spent up to 10 hours in line for giving Apple money.
If Apple had gone through the line, had issued accurately accounted and model-specific vouchers representing the real inventory, many people could have saved a day of waiting for nothing. It would have been a kinda real time in-line reservation system, much like the online reservation system used during the iPhone 4 launch.
To be clear: I don’ t blame Apple for the short supply of a hot product. It’ s the peoples problem, not Apple’s, to come too late to party. The early bird catches the worm.
But handing out ONE voucher that spans a product range of $499 – $829, 3 different network connections, 3 RAM configurations and two colors close to the border of two different 3G network hemispheres is downright stupid.
And: Listening to Apple employers trying to talk frustrated canadian customers into the CDMA versions ‘because they live close to the U.S. border’ was embarrassing and sounded much like Sarah Palins foreign policy argument towards Russia.
And while we are at it: Apple, I don’t appreciate being lied into my face by hearing ‘we don’ t know our inventory’.
How did you know how many vouchers to issue if you did not know your inventory number in the first place ??
Of course they know it down to the last serial number, but they did not want to tell customers because they hope to keep the lines long and sell the less popular models to the frustrated ones only desperate to not leave empty-handed.
Bottom line Apple pissed of many, many customers yesterday, incl. me. They have suffered a serious dent in the perception of even the most diehard fanboys.
Was number 16 in line and love all 7 hrs that I was there for
A 24 year old millionaire who travels the world whenever he pleases, drives his own fully-loaded Audi TT coupe sports car and lives in a fully-paid luxury condo on the lakeside of downtown Toronto, Canada and most importantly, a fully-loaded bank account.