iPhone pre-orders may help alleviate long store lines
If you visited a local iPhone carrier store on Friday, it’s likely that you did not see lines wrapped around the store as the newest Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus made their debut.
Furqan Ahmed, an Area Retail Sales Lead for AT&T, says he’s noticed customers appreciate the option to the pre-order.
“Last Friday when the iPhone was launched, we did start doing pre-orders,” says Ahmed. “We had a busy weekend throughout the week days as well, people are just ordering the phones not waiting in line this year.”
The newest iPhone model starts at 649 dollars, and it comes in five colors: gold, rose gold, silver, black and “jet black”.
Apple touts water resistance, beefed-up cameras, and the iOS 10 operating system as some reasons why “there’s nothing else like an iPhone”.
Enhanced picture quality is just one premier feature of the new phones but when we asked customers what they liked best, answers varied.
“I’m also encouraged that it’s 256 gigs, I don’t think I’ll ever use that much but it might be worth trying to see what I can and can’t do with this,” explains Terrance Pounds.
Pounds and his friend William Pettigrew drove over an hour Friday for their phones, but they admit the drive across the Bay Bridge was not solely for the phones. It was for the sales associate selling them, someone they’ve worked with for years.
Pounds explains he does not normally order newest phones right away; however, he made an exception for this new release.
“We have a friend that works in Apple, and we’ve kind of played around with the beta testing of the new iOS system and I like the way it was, and I just figured that I wanted to go ahead and get the new phone try it out,” he tells 47ABC.
Pettigrew says he’s had every phone since the iPhone 3 debut and unlike Pounds, he gets his hands on a new phone as soon as it’s released.
“As soon I can get it,” he says. “I don’t like waiting. I don’t like to wait.”
Many stores across the nation, including the AT&T store in Salisbury, opened their doors an hour earlier on Friday to accommodate the rush of customers.
Apple warns customers can’t be too picky about a color when it comes to getting their hands on a new phone.
In a statement, the tech company explains the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in jet black have sold out during the online pre-order period; however, there is still hope for those who may want that color.
Even if Apple stores are sold out, some carrier stores could have them in stock.
