UPDATED: See comment below.
The very last iPhone 3G at the Stonestown store in south San Francisco was just sold to a guy in a Microsoft shirt!
I’m currently at the Apple store in the Stonestown mall, posting from an in-store computer.
I came down to pick up an iPhone 3G, but the last phone was just sold to this guy in a Microsoft shirt. WTF!
The guy, who is very nice, asked me not to use his name in case he gets into trouble at work. He is a trainer for Microsoft Microsoft trainer who works for a third party company.
Staff here at the Apple store say they have no idea when — or even if — they will get new stock of the iPhone 3G.
The concierge is sending people upstairs to a new AT&T store that is apparently taking preorders. The concierge says there’s likely a 21 day wait however.
I phoned other nearby stores in Sand Francisco and Burlingame, but they are sold out also.
As Lonnie reports below, iPhones are available at only one in four stores, and Piper analyst Gene Munster thinks it will take Apple a month to restock.
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.
32 responses to “Last iPhone 3G in South San Francisco Goes to Microsoft Guy — Are iPhones Selling Out?”
Don’t think MIcrosoft employees need phones too? Which phone would you suggest? A windows mobile device? Urgh.
That’s what you call a “career limiting move” — work as a Microsoft trainer and get famous for snapping up an iPhone.
Maybe Microsoft is financing the purchase of all the iPhones in the world so it can have them thrown into a volcano and declared a failure?
shouldn’t you put a black bar over his face or something?
Errr, he’s getting it so that they can take it apart and copy it. What other reason could it be? ;-)
Stonestown Mall is in San Francisco, not South San Francisco. South SF is a different city in a different county than San Francisco. Perhaps what you wanted to say was that the mall is in the southern part of San Francisco. (Just a correction in the interest of accuracy.)
Dang, a few months ago I lived exactly 3 blocks from the Stonesown mall. I could of been there before anyone else, and just have friends get stuff for me when i needed it.
Oh well, now I live in a 3g-less area anyway,so what’s the point?
Also, might want to blur, pixelate, or black bar the guys face. I’m sure some (gasp!) M$ employees read this blog.
Cheers!
-Thomas
Change the name of your website, there is not one mac article. It is all iPhone, all the time…
Nice job getting that guy fired. You should have blurred out his face. You know Ballmer doesn’t allow MS employees to have iPods or his kids to have one. They can’t use Google either. Sheesh, this guy should have known better than to wear a MS shirt anyways. That’s Blog fodder right there.
I think the guy would be happier working for Apple anyway.
Something more for Steve Balmer to shout about!
Thanks for the heads up about hitting the AT&T store to get on the list for the next shipment…I wandered into the Geary Street AT&T store in San Francisco and ordered my new 3G phone today. It took 5 minutes with a very savvy AT&T rep to get the 16 GB phone purchased. She made a point of saying that the phone will arrive in 7-21 days, but I got the feeling it would be sooner. Hopefully activation goes smoothly.
Yup, it is true. I live in South San Francisco but Stonestown is not here. It is the forth town south of the City (Daly City, Brisbane, and Colma are all in the way).
hahaha that’s my brother. f@ck microsoft! team mac!!!
Leander,
I’m the guy in the pic you ran into while I was on my way out of the store. Although this pic was taken all in good fun, I must correct you and tell you I DO NOT work directly for MS, but actually for a 3rd party marketing company. I did also mention my face was NOT to be shown in the pic. Please kindly blockout my face as I do not want to lose my job over it. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!
Hey that’s my cousin!!! Way to go!!!
Tripllllllle Cheeeeeezburger!!!
dude, if your company is that tight, get a new job. seriously.
Hey, does anybody got a photo of “Stevie Ballmire” himself picking up an iPhone? I’m sure he does.