This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here we go again.
The launch of a new Apple iPhone 4S Friday coaxed some buyers to stand in line overnight at the Apple Retail Store at the Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake City, though the number was much less than those who spent hours waiting for last year's version.
There were about 60 eager iPhone fans in line by 7:30 a.m. Friday at the Apple Retail Store. Another half dozen were each at the AT&T and Verizon stores at the Gateway. Meanwhile, it was lights out at the Sprint store at the same mall, and there were no customers in line. This is the first time that Sprint is making the iPhone available.
Still, that didn't stop 19-year-old Utah Valley University student Ben Jarman, Orem, from getting in line at the Apple Store on Wednesday night. The store opened its doors and began selling the phone Friday at 8 a.m.
"I have a computer, a cellphone, and an iPod touch and a car," he said about what he relied on to keep from getting bored in line for more than a day and a half.
"I missed out on the iPhone 4 and I needed to get a new phone. It was time," he added, explaining why he got into line so early. "And I figured, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right. Honestly, camping out is half the fun for me."
Elsewhere hundreds of buyers camped out for hours to be among the first to get one.
About 200 people were at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan as the iPhone 4S went on sale at 8 a.m. Steve Wozniak, who created Apple with Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif.
Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died last week, a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.
Emily Smith, a 27-year-old user experience designer in New York, checked in to the line on the location-centric social network Foursquare. She got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: "Here's to the crazy ones. ThankYouSteve."
Others joked that the 4S model stood "for Steve."
Many people came out despite the fact that they could have ordered phones online and had them shipped to their homes or offices.
Apple's newest iteration offers mostly moderate changes to the iPhone's hardware, including a faster processor, a better camera and the introduction of a new voice-command system called "Siri." The phone retails from $199 to $399 with a two-year-contract, depending on the size of storage.
During last year's launch for the iPhone 4, hundreds of buyers stood in line that snaked around the Gateway building and down the length of the mall. That line remained for the entire day until the store ran out of phones later that night, and stock remained low for several weeks after.
Shortages likely won't be a problem this year.
Perhaps the biggest difference that resulted in much smaller lines this year are that the new iPhone 4S is now available through Verizon and Sprint, and a second Apple store opened at the Fashion Place Mall in Murray to spread the customers. And unlike for the iPhone 4, buyers were allowed to pre-order their iPhone 4S beginning last week before it went on sale Friday. Apple reportedly sold one million pre-orders for the new phone in the first 24 hours, a company record.
"About [6 a.m.], I expected a lot more people to show up, but I'm thinking just because of the amount of pre-orders, and everything that's gone on, people are just waiting for their pre-orders to come in," said 19-year-old Alexa Devereaux of Park City, who had been in line for nearly 12 hours.
There was one other significant difference for those who were standing in line Friday morning — the death of Apple's co-founder and iconic leader, Steve Jobs, earlier this month. While there was some talk of Jobs' death among fans in line, Devereaux said it never cast a pall over their excitement for the new phone.
"There's been not too much talk," she said. "There's just too much hype over the new phone to be talking about something sad."
Twitter: @ohmytech
Google+: +Vincent Horiuchi —
Lowdown on the iPhone 4S
Capacity • 16 gigabyte model for $199, 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399
Display • retina display, 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multitouch display
8-megapixel camera •
Video recording • high-definition (1080p — comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio
Battery • talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G. Internet works for up to up to 6 hours on 3G, and up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi, one hour shorter than the iPhone 4. Up to 10 hours of video playback.
Dual-core A5 processor • is twice as fast, and renders graphics seven times faster than the previous model's processor
Wireless carriers• AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel