If you were following me on Facebook, you'd know that I was one of the crazy ones who queued up for the release of Apple iPhone 4S last Friday in the Perth store.
Dad currently has an iPhone 3GS which used to belong to me. When I upgraded my phone to iPhone 4, I gave him my 1 year old iPhone 3GS. Dad having the smartphone was indeed a good choice as brother Alex in the UK has a HTC and youngest brother Alwin in the US has an iPhone 4. That meant that we could whatsapp and most importantly, tango each other anytime, without having to worry about the international call rates. But, unfortunately, mum was feeling left out with her Sony Ericsson and we could only talk to her online at the computer, instead of tangoing her on the way home in the bus. Besides, it was only in the evening after work, that dad came home and gave her the phone to read all the whatsapp messages that all of us siblings sent - that's on average 150 messages altogether!
So when news of the iPhone 4S was going to be released in Australia on 14th October, I kept persuading dad to get one. As in, I get one for him. Although it was much cheaper to get a phone with a plan in Malaysia, we didn't know how long we had to wait for the phone to be released in Malaysia. Last time when iPhone 4 was released in Australia, it was only after 4 months before it was released in Malaysia. And obviously, it would take another 2 months more for dad to get hold of it since the first batch of stock would be swept away in a matter of hours by the youngsters who are tech-craze.
I gave dad a few days to think about it. One day he said yes to getting the phone, and the next day, he said no and will wait patiently to get one in Malaysia. The night before the phone was due to be released, he decided that he would wait. But after much persuasion from me via tango and whatsapp, he changed his mind again. LOL. By then, it was already too late to make an online ordering because I was sure that it would be out of stock and I wouldn't know when the new stock would come in (because Alwin in the US told me that the Apple store wouldn't take in online orders anymore because it was already out of stock).
So, at 10 pm on Thursday, I decided to do the craziest thing I've ever done. Well, I've queued up for the Apple Store to make its first opening in June last year, but never have I joined in the craze of queuing up for something to be released before!! I always thought that it is a very ridiculous thing to do - camping overnight in front of a store to get something. But since I am staying opposite the store, I thought to myself, "Why not?". No harm done. I didn't have to camp overnight out in the chilly night; I just have to wake up early and cross the road and be there in a minute - like literally one minute!
So I set my alarm clock to ring at 5 am. I thought, who would be earlier and crazier than me? I even made a calculation that the first public transport to arrive Perth CBD would arrive by 5.30 am. So getting down at 5.30 am meant that I would be one of the first people who has enough sleep, to queue up for it. I even checked the queue the night before and at 7.30 pm, there were close to 20 people, so yeah, surely I would be customer number 50 or something.
Well, I kind of miscalculated. By the time I got down at 5.20 am, it was 10 degrees Celcius, and the queue was about 300 meters long. I was so shocked that there were hundreds of people before me!! All of them came in cars and parked along the road and waited for the store to open at 8 am and many of them were young Asians! Luckily I had with me, a foldable chair I got from Kathmandu so I need not have to sit on the ground. :P
It was a bitter sweet wait for the store to open but I guess the wait for worth it. Everything was organised and done in an orderly fashion besides the argument of a group of girls and guys on who's first in the queue. By 6 am, Chin Fei came down for work and bought me breakfast and hot chocolate. :) During the wait, the Apple staff was nice enough to come and talk to us and keep us company, besides answering questions. They handed out free water bottles too and it was funny because the guy next to me asked the staff it is was free - as if that he could afford to pay for a AUD800 phone but couldn't pay for a water bottle. LOL. Closer to 8 am, the staff came running out and screaming along the road, as like what they did the last time. By 8 am, the store opened, but it was still a long wait before I could enter the store. By then, the staff came around and handed us with tickets that meant that I was guaranteed to get a phone. I bought a black 16Gb for dad and my friend Sean wanted a white 16Gb.
Once I got into the store, I still had to wait in the queue for a staff to come and help me. I think it was really a busy day for everyone so the staff wasn't friendly, sad to say. He merely handed me the phones after I gave him my tickets. I paid for them and he congratulated me for owning the phones and left me to another table where someone else was responsible for activating the phone for me and he was off to serve the next customer. So there I was, left waiting again at the personal setup desk, for someone to activate dad's phone with a blank SIM card so I could bring it back to Malaysia GST-free.
By the time I got back home, it was almost 10.30 am. I couldn't believe I waited outside my house for 5 long hours! During that time, there were many news station and reporters came reporting and I purposely stood in the background showing off the tickets. Tee hee hee. I went home trying to find any recording of me but nope, they decided to show the Apple store in Sydney instead. Booo! :P
Black for dad, white for Sean
Now I'm all excited to go back next month to give my dad the new phone. :) I'm looking forward to playing with Siri because I tried it in the store and it was absolutely awesome!!! I can't wait for iPhone 5 to come out and will upgrade mine then. :) :)
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