iPhone pre-orders may help alleviate long store lines

fall, will have highs in the low 80s and plenty of sunshine. it looks to stay sunny on friday and temperatures stay in the low 80s. apple aficionados – today is your day. the long-awaited i-phone seven and seven plus hit stores across the country. customers have joined cities worldwide — including sydney and hong kong. but as 47 a-b-c’s lili zheng explains — lines at one local store were not what you mayxpect. track 1 if you visited an iphone carrier store in salisbury on friday –you probably didn’t see this. lines wrapped around the store — as the newest apple iphone seven and seven plus makes their debut. last friday when the iphone was launched, we did start doing pre-orders. we had a busy weekend throughout the week days as well, people are just ordering the phones not waiting in line this year track 2 furqan ahmed is an area retail sales lead for a-t-and-t. ahmed explains — he’s noticed customers appreciate the option to the pre-order. the newest iphone model starts at six-hundred and forty-nine dollars. and — it comes in five colors. apple touts water resistance, beefed-up cameras, and the i-o-s 10 — as some reasons why “there’s nothing like an i-phone” enhanced picture quality is just one premier feature of the new iphones — but when we asked customers what they liked best…?” 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 track 3 terrance pounds and 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 their — someone they’ve worked with for years. while pounds explains — he normally does not order newest phones right away… 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 track 4 — pettigrew says otherwise. 18:53:04 as soon i can get it 05 18:53:14 i don’t like waiting <laughs i don’t like to wait 16> track 5 lili zheng, 47 a-b-c most stores across the country opened an hour early to accommodate i-phone customers. the a-t-and-t store spoke to — says they are closing at nine p-m. best buy in salisbury — is also closing at nine 9 p-m — to name a few stores. now 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 i-phone seven and seven plus in jet black have sold out — during the online pre-order period. so — they will not be available for walk-in customers. but — 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. and as you saw in our report — non-apple retailers tend to have shorter lines. 18:29:39 our goal is to get the iphone 7 to all of our customers that are waiting in line or coming into the store. that’s going to be our goal today 46 according to apple’s website — the jet black version of the iphone seven plus won’t ship until november in the u-s. all other colors — including matte black — are expected to ship in two to three weeks. that’s if customers order online directly from apple. perdue farms says it will stop the controversial practice of putting plastic