Straight from the Launch Lines
If you have never camped out for a launch date, then you have certainly missed out on a good chance to interact with other people with similar interests –or you are simply far too busy to spend overnight camping in front of a store.
Stephen Fry has been the first to say it, camping out is a cultural thing and there is certainly more to waiting for a product launch than commercialism at its finest. There have been more than a couple of hundred folks who were in line at Regent Street alone, and there were several other queues in other Apple store locations as well. While the lines may already seem huge, the fact that retailers such as Curry’s and PC World provided alternatives certainly helped cut down the size of the crowds to a more manageable size.
Apple store employees bravely faced the crowds, cheering on the many people who have lined up for the early opening of the store (they would clap for each customer who came in); as part of the iPad launch, the stores opened up at 8 in the morning –earlier than usual in order to let the folks who camped out at night to catch some rest later in the day.
Of course, there are also those who pre-ordered the tablet but have not been part of the early shipping; so instead of having to wait for more than a couple more weeks (estimates shipping is by June 7), some of these folks have decided to brave the lines as well. The longest amount of time some folks have waited reached as long as 16 hours (some reported 20), while the average wait time for many folks in the middle to the end of the queue was anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.
