The new iPhone went on sale Friday morning, greeted by much smaller lines and less hoopla than previous models.
Tyler Pruitt of Everett waited for an hour outside the Alderwood mall Apple Store to get his new iPhone. When he got there at 6 a.m., there were about 45 others in line.
“I was planning to go at 4:30, but I was looking on Twitter and people were saying the mall security weren’t allowing people to line up until 5:30,” said Pruitt, 27.
Compared with past iPhone campouts, this one was a little lackluster, he said.
“It seems like there was a lot less excitement this year compared to the previous two phone launches,” Pruitt said. “And it seemed like a lot of the people who were buying the phone were upgrading from the original iPhone — not the latest one.”
The new phone is noticeably faster when it comes to surfing the Web, he said. He likes that an upgraded camera feature allows for touch-screen focusing. And this version records video, which can be instantly uploaded to YouTube.
In the past, Apple’s servers failed to cope with the load of new customers trying to activate their phones. This year, Apple and AT&T Inc., the phone’s U.S. carrier, defused the drama by taking pre-orders online. That means fewer prospective buyers had a reason to stand in line, and it sped up the activation process.
Apple also released its software update for previous customers two days early. There were only scattered reports of problems with that upgrade.
The new model is called the 3G S. AT&T said it had taken pre-orders for hundreds of thousands of the phones. Apple sold 1 million units of the older 3G model in the first three days last year.
For new customers signing a two-year contract with AT&T, the 3G S costs $199 or $299 depending on the memory capacity. Compared to the 3G, it has a faster processor and an upgraded camera.
Owners of the previous model, the iPhone 3G, will have to pay more than that. Most of them are not eligible for the new-customer pricing because AT&T subsidizes the cost of the phone and requires customers to “pay off” the subsidy through their monthly service fees before it will subsidize a new phone.
In line at the Fifth Avenue store, Brandon Dennie, 27, was not put off by the prospect of having to pay the unsubsidized price of $599 for the new phone. He’s had a 3G for only six months, so he didn’t qualify for the lowest price.
He’s creating his own subsidy by selling his old phone for $200 to a colleague, and he has an Apple gift card.
“I want the video option and the speed,” Dennie said.
In its two-year life, the iPhone range has revolutionized phone design and given AT&T a leg up on its rivals in recruiting customers willing to pay high monthly fees.
Competitors have started to catch up to some of the iPhone’s signature features, like a user interface that’s designed from the ground up to be navigated with finger touches. In particular, Palm Inc.’s Pre, which came out two weeks ago, has generated a lot of buzz and favorable reviews.
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