'I'll Sleep with My iPhone'

By Jay Yarow

Scenes from Apple's Latest New York iPhone Circus

The swell of people hoping to buy the new Apple iPhone reached critical mass in front of Apple's midtown store in New York City in the early hours of July 11. By the time the store opened its doors at 8 a.m., the circus of Apple (AAPL) fans essentially circled an entire city block—running from the store's glass-cube entrance on Fifth Avenue all the way down 58th Street, up Madison Avenue, and all the way back down 59th Street to Fifth. The last person in line could see the front of the line just a few yards away. Meanwhile, at an AT&T (T) store just five blocks away, a smaller line formed, though it still occupied a street block.

The first few people had shown up a full week prior, on July 4. They weren't really that interested in the iPhone 3G, though. The group of neo-hippies was primarily interested in alerting the world to the benefits of organic farming as well as other environmental causes (and breaking a Guinness Record for waiting in the meantime). "We're young," said one member of the group. "It's something to do, instead of just complaining about the world. We can tell our grandchildren about it. We're young and stupid!"

The real iPhone fans started showing up on July 9. The first person to take a place in line behind the environmentalists was a 33-year-old named Tony, who would not give his last name and wore a black T-shirt with the name of the metal band Emperor. After him came two 18-year-olds, Kyle Hobin and Matthew Rosenhein, who wanted to write about the experience for their blog. Paul Zarate, 15, joined the line Thursday afternoon. He said he wanted the new iPhone because it has satellite technology. "I'm going to Ohio in a few days, so the GPS will help with that," he said.

By early Friday, hundreds of people had joined the queue behind them. Passersby snapped photos. One man with bleach-blonde hair screamed about religion. Apple employees handed out bottles of water. One company gave away brown bags filled with the makings for s'mores, complete with a candle and matches to melt the marshmallows.

Why did all these people decide they had to have an iPhone as soon as it was available? The answers vary by the person. Here are some of the people from the line at the Apple store, as well as a couple from an AT&T store around the corner, which also offered the phone.

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