Apple Stores to Open Friday at 8AM
Joining AT&T stores nationwide for the iPhone 3G launch, Apple retail stores in the US will open for business at 8am on July 11, according to information posted on Apple’s website. In addition to AT&T’s 1800 retail locations, American early birds will have nearly 200 Apple Stores available for their early morning shopping pleasure.
The stores began receiving 3G in-store displays today, according to Gizmodo, which also has a nice gallery of display photos. In-store demo units of the new phone are due in stores tomorrow and store employees have been instructed to download apps from the App Store on the morning of July 11th, according to a post at MacRumors.
Kiwi’s might be the first to get the new iPhone, but I’m not sure it will sell as well as expected due to Vodafone over pricing it:
From Friday Kiwi shoppers can buy the 8GB iPhone for $199, provided they sign up for a $250 per month, two-year plan. This works out to $6199 over the two years of the plan, though this includes voice, SMS and 1GB of data per month.
Alternatively you can get a $130 per month plan that gives 500MB of monthly data but the 8GB model will cost you $449.
I’m not sure how this compares to the US, but it’s a cruel blow to Mac fans who just want an iPhone with an affordable contract.
Jonathan, on July 7th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
hi Leander,
In Japan, people started to form a line on Tuesday, July 9th.
My friend said the count was about 15 at around 10pm.
nobi, on July 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am