Mar
12
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MC20110312.mp3 [25.1MB 00:51:53 64kbps]
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 341. Lines, availability, and shortages. iFixit tears down iPad 2. iPad 2 launch day interviews. Get iMovie running on an iPad 1.
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I looked at the line at the Apple Store in Jacksonville, Fl before 5PM and decided to go elsewhere. Found Target sold out, Best Buy sold out and the AT&T stores here didn’t receive any. So went back to Apple Store and got in line. Managed to get the last ticket and for the model I wanted Black/Verizon/32GB and spent two hours in line from start to finish. I figured lines would be longer this year and they were much longer than the first iPad at this location. Last year I reserved an iPad ahead of time, but even the regular line was only a dozen or more people. I’m not sure why anybody listens to analyst Gene Munster who said lines would be shorter – does this guy get anything right?
I had the first iPad from day one and am very happy with the iPad 2. Browsing is much improved and the thinner lighter design is a solid improvement. I am surprised Steve Jobs didn’t name the “Magic Cover”, it is so much fun to play with – but even better it works perfectly as a stand. I do like not having a case covering the beauty of Apple engineering and I carry it in a messenger bag anyway so it is protected otherwise.
I wish I could get a kickback from Apple for the number of iPad 2 I will get others to buy. As an application developer for Windows I am surrounded by People biased towards Apple – as I once was before switching 3 and a half years ago. The first iPad was weakening them towards the iPad and the new one will blow them away. Already a couple other Application developers were wanting to get one and were waiting to see it.
Adam, love the show, but I have to tell you that many of us had vastly different experiences than you on the iPad 2 line. I’m here in Long Island, NY, and Friday 3/11 was a cold miserable day outside, and I ended up going home empty handed.
I could only get out of work by about 3:30 PM, so when I hit the Apple store in my town (Manhassat, NY – a very affluent neighborhood), it was 4 PM and already about 200 to 250 were on line. Another 50 to 70 came after me, but I had a feeling I was too late.
It seems like the Apple store employees only opened the shipping crates at about 4:30, but no earlier. As the store manager really had no idea how many of hte 18 models they had. I then saw the workers frantically hauling boxes of iPads onto the floor behind the genius bar, then trying to match each box with a sticker and a voucher tag for the color, model, and capacity. Then they took the voucher to the line to hand out.
This whole process took them over 2.5 hours to do. In the mean time, the line stalled for 40 minute at a time repeatedly. People were cold, bitter, and angry. I saw some people on the line yelling at Apple store workers at how disorganized and unprepared they were. In front of me was a mother and daughter who didn’t prepare for the weather and were huddling together and shivering for warmth.
By the time they told us that they ran out of vouchers, there were 60 people ahead of me, and I was just happy to leave and get to a warm house. I will NEVER stand on a line on launch day again. It was an absolutely miserable experience.
I wish I had your experience Adam, but from what I read, mine was more the norm, and yours was the outlier. At least Apple got all their publicity of us lining up, unlike the Verizone iPhone launch.