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We are giving out water

economist.com

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Re: We are giving out water

#101

Post by dinedal »

khafra wrote: post #94
sliverstorm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I was younger, I'd camp out with friends because it was part of the experience. I mean, sure I was excited and eager, but camping out and getting home at 2AM and playing something nobody's played before until noon the next day with your close friends was great fun. I'd argue the inherently social component available in game consoles makes it (potentially; depends on the person or group of people) a little d…

You mean, the phones that you can do video chat on, with someone else who owns one?

I think there's a lot more depth to the social interactions of a party game with up to four then a video chat that only involves two. I just can't see anyone staying up from 2 am to noon on video chat, but someone with Monkey Ball and 3 friends could do this easily.

Re: We are giving out water

#102

Post by e40 »

hop wrote: post #97
ergo98 wrote: post #6

It is pretty surprising that Apple hasn't been called on this cheap PR. Every person standing in line is being used as a stooge by Apple to get press, and the media always abides. This is the first article I've seen yet that points out this obvious exploitation of the Apple faithful. It's positively archaic. Just to be clear, as the article notes the people standing in line RESERVED a phone. They already have their s…

The iPhone 4 uses a microsim instead of regular sim cards. It takes some time to replace and transfer data to the new one - the whole process takes 15min per person, thus mindlowinly slow lines.

That's not the point. The point is that Apple knows this and could schedule people in an efficient manor, not causing long lines.

Re: We are giving out water

#103

Post by adw »

dkarl wrote: post #16

Apple loves this stuff. I was in an Apple store a few weeks ago to buy a gift. Aside from the "Genius" Bar, there were five employees helping customers and another two employees fiddling with boxes and displays. There were seven or eight customers ahead of me impatiently waiting to be served. There was a lot of ostentatious yawning, foot-tapping, and watch-checking. In the ten minutes I stayed, the employees on the f…

This is the Apple Store on Regent Street, London. It's massive, and it does £60m sales per annum - over £2k per square foot (http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2010/05/apples-regent-st...). It's the single most profitable store per square foot in the UK.

They're pretty efficient.

Re: We are giving out water

#104

Post by subwindow »

treyp wrote: post #81
subwindow wrote: post #21

Restaurants and clubs do this all the time. It's not so surprising or ingenious. It is kind of a bitch, though.

isn't that due to actual full capacity (restaurants) and fire code (clubs)? i don't think either one has the ability to schedule their customers throughout the day or take another approach to reservations.

Clubs will keep a line out the door by instructing the bouncer to slowly let people in or to randomly decide to not let anyone in at a given time (when the line is not long enough).

Restaurants will do this by having the waiting area artificially small. Restaurants where you order before you sit down will have the cash registers near the door, and understaff the registers.

Re: We are giving out water

#105

Post by hop »

e40 wrote: post #102
hop wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone 4 uses a microsim instead of regular sim cards. It takes some time to replace and transfer data to the new one - the whole process takes 15min per person, thus mindlowinly slow lines.

That's not the point. The point is that Apple knows this and could schedule people in an efficient manor, not causing long lines.

Oh, certainly not defending it. The knew how many people were coming well ahead of time. I live in Portland, there's only one little Apple store for all of downtown and the eastside - it was a nightmare.

Re: We are giving out water

#106

Post by qq66 »

ErrantX wrote: post #41
jolie wrote: post #2

Is it really, really so bad to wait a couple days or weeks longer to get your precious fucking iPhone? I hate queuing in general, but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me.

> but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me This is a cultural thing :) put a couple of us brits together and we will form a queue. And we will do it with minimal fuss and lots of solidarity. We are damned good at it - and very proud of that. (my "best queue" was 8 hours for a Leeds Festival ticket :))

8 hours for a Leeds Festival ticket is borderline understandable. It's a possibly one-time event (for that particular lineup), and you can only get the ticket if you wait in line.

But standing in line 8 hours so that you can have twice the pixels on your phone a week before all your friends?

Re: We are giving out water

#107

Post by qq66 »

Aaronontheweb wrote: post #47
jolie wrote: post #2

Is it really, really so bad to wait a couple days or weeks longer to get your precious fucking iPhone? I hate queuing in general, but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me.

When the first iPhone came out I was a senior in college - one of my buddies stood in line like a schlub and bought the damn thing as soon as it became available. A month later, I actually watched him try to pick up some girls in a bar by showing it off. I died a little inside.

Did it work?

Re: We are giving out water

#108

Post by jolie »

ErrantX wrote: post #41
jolie wrote: post #2

Is it really, really so bad to wait a couple days or weeks longer to get your precious fucking iPhone? I hate queuing in general, but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me.

> but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me This is a cultural thing :) put a couple of us brits together and we will form a queue. And we will do it with minimal fuss and lots of solidarity. We are damned good at it - and very proud of that. (my "best queue" was 8 hours for a Leeds Festival ticket :))

Oh, I totally get lining up for an event. It's a one-time thing, and you literally HAVE to line up to get a ticket/get in.

But a phone? It'll last a year or so, depending. And it's not necessary to queue.

If I could sum up my thoughts in one word, that word would be "GAH."

Re: We are giving out water

#109

Post by ErrantX »

jolie wrote: post #108
ErrantX wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but this is the kind of line-waiting that literally makes no sense at all to me This is a cultural thing :) put a couple of us brits together and we will form a queue. And we will do it with minimal fuss and lots of solidarity. We are damned good at it - and very proud of that. (my "best queue" was 8 hours for a Leeds Festival ticket :))

Oh, I totally get lining up for an event. It's a one-time thing, and you literally HAVE to line up to get a ticket/get in. But a phone? It'll last a year or so, depending. And it's not necessary to queue. If I could sum up my thoughts in one word, that word would be "GAH."

Pish. Who cares what it's for, you can't beat the beauty of a good queue. :-p

Re: We are giving out water

#110

Post by Aaronontheweb »

qq66 wrote: post #107
Aaronontheweb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the first iPhone came out I was a senior in college - one of my buddies stood in line like a schlub and bought the damn thing as soon as it became available. A month later, I actually watched him try to pick up some girls in a bar by showing it off. I died a little inside.

Did it work?

No. If it did I probably would have dropped out of college and joined a monastery.
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