Rebecca and Brandon House, left, are the first of about 45 people in line Friday evening outside AT&T’s retail store on Lorain Road in North Olmsted to purchase Apple’s much-hyped iPhone. (West Life photos by Larry Bennet)

Westshore residents line up for scarce iPhones
By Kevin Kelley
North Olmsted
Published July 4, 2007

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...iPhone?

About 45 technophiles were waiting in line at AT&T’s Lorain Road store Friday at i-hour — 6 p.m. — when the doors opened for the first sale of Apple’s revolutionary cell phone/iPod/mini computer.

Rebecca House of Avon was the first to enter the store, having been the first to line up at 9 that morning.

The second person arrived at around 11:30 a.m., the third at 2 p.m., House told West Life.

“I was surprised when I got here and there was no one here,” House said. “I was kind of shocked. I thought people might have come (the previous) night, or come really early in the morning.”

Rebecca and Brandon House with their newly purchased iPhone, still in the box.

The iPhone she purchased wasn’t even for her. She was waiting in line to get one for her husband, Brandon, an information technology auditor for an accounting firm. He surprised her by bringing her coffee at about 10 a.m., then waited with her beginning at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Brandon said he needed a new cell phone anyway. So why not get the most hyped one ever?

“Basically, it’s a revolutionary device,” Brandon said. “It’s got the video iPod features, and a phone, all with Internet access, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi.”

Like most of the people in line that West Life spoke to, the Houses are fans of Apple products and have been closely following the development of the company’s latest product.

“I’ve been following the iPhone since its birth,” Brandon said. “I read a lot of gadget blogs and have been following day to day what’s been going on.”

Matt Walsh of Rocky River got in line around 3:45 p.m.

“I thought it would probably sell out today,” he said. His company, Easy2 Technologies, a Web development company, is paying for his iPhone.

“We think that people are going to be using this a lot, so we need to test our (Web) pages on the iPhone,” he said.

Before the store opened at 6 p.m., employees gave those in line an order form asking which version they wanted — the $499 4-gigabyte version or the $599 8-gigabyte version, whether they were already AT&T cell subscribers, and if they wanted any iPhone accessories.

Once the magical hour of 6 p.m. came, customers were allowed in the store two by two.

Many in line commented on how organized the process was.

Josh Friedman of Lyndhurst had been to several opening day sales of the newest video game systems where pandemonium broke out.

“They didn’t have people outside explaining what’s going on,” Friedman said of his wild video game buying experiences. “They opened the doors and people just ran in.”

Purchasers were told they were not allowed to open the iPhone box while in the store. That would not have done them any good anyway, because the phone has to be activated by using a computer running iTunes, Apple’s digital media player software.

Two women, implausibly unaware of the iPhone mania sweeping the nation, came to the store around 6 p.m. on regular AT&T cell phone business.

One, who needed to replace a broken headset, was told by employees to either come back later or go to the end of the iPhone line.

“That’s ridiculous,” said the woman, who went away.

At 6:24, an employee announced that the 8-gigabyte iPhones were in short supply. Other nearby stores had already sold out, he said.

Four minutes later, the last 8-gigabyte iPhone at the store was sold. However, customers in line were told they could still place orders.

An AT&T spokesman told Reuters that nearly all of the company’s 1,800 retail stores sold out of iPhones Friday night. Company officials declined to say how many iPhones its stores were allotted, but the Lorain Road store apparently had about 30 for sale Friday evening.

Still, many were surprised the North Olmsted store did not draw larger crowds.

Ashley Lambrakis of Cleveland, who got in line at 4 p.m., was pleasantly surprised to get an iPhone.

“I thought I was coming way too late at 4,” she said.

Lambrakis, a video game store manager, told West Life that she wanted the iPhone for its touch screen and convenience of  combining a cell phone, media player and Web browser.

“It consolidates all the devices that I carry into one,” she said.