For 23 hours, 27-year-old Scott Manthey of San Jose waited in line at Oakridge Mall in San Jose.
Veronica Bautista, 17, of Sunnyvale stood in line for 22 hours at Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara.
Both of them, along with thousands of others, anxiously anticipated the June 29 release of the iPhone, the newest high-tech gadget from Apple Inc.
The premiere of the iPhone has been met with overwhelming excitement. The first and second floors of Valley Fair mall overflowed with people on the launch date. Inside the Apple store, as the 6 p.m. launch time neared, employees formed a two-line walkway.
A countdown began. 10-9-8 . . .
And with the shouting of ONE, the gates of the Apple store lifted. The wait was over.
Greeted by high-fives from employees, the first group of eager customers entered the store, including Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who was the honorary first person in line.
Not many products inspire this kind of frenzy. According to the Contra Costa Times, Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said shoppers might have bought as many as 700,000 units during the iPhone's first weekend of release.
The iPhone is a combination of an iPod, a Web browser and a phone. Apple made the iPhone with advanced technology, but the gadget is said to be user-friendly for the everyday consumer. It has a touch screen that enables users to control the phone with their fingertips, it can access e-mail and send messages and pictures and, of course, it can surf the Web.
The iPhone has a 2.0-megapixel camera to take pictures, but it's unable to take videos. With its 3.5-inch screen and sleek design, the iPhone is the hottest product in the technology world.
So how much is this revolutionary device going to cost you? A four-gigabyte version costs $499, and an eight-gigabyte version costs $599. Users also must pay a monthly minimum of $59.99 for a calling plan with iPhone's exclusive carrier, AT&T, and a one-time activation fee of $36. The minimum cost for an iPhone is a whopping $594.99.
The day before the iPhone's launch date, lines began forming outside Apple stores across the country -- similar to those formed by people eager to purchase the PlayStation 3 or Wii.
Michael Leonard, 46, of San Jose first stepped into line at Valley Fair about 10 p.m. on June 28. The line was formed outside until about 7 a.m., when the mall opened, and the first 75 people were led inside. As for his decision to wait in line, "This was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It was more like a dare," Leonard said.
Lindsay Guillen, 21, of Campbell waited nine hours to buy her iPhone. "I'm a nerd; I just have to have it," Guillen said. The Apple fan was at Macworld the day Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, and she knew she would be in line waiting the day of its release.
The day after she bought it, she's still pleased with the product. "It's really great," Guillen said. "I can't believe I've gone without it for so long. . . . I'm using it now."
Some people such as Shawn Abadajos, 25, of San Jose, didn't get caught up in the hype. "The iPhone isn't for every person," Abadajos said. "Do they really need it? I think most people are getting it just because it's Apple."
Juan Figueroa, 24, of San Jose agreed. Both say the iPhone would be more useful to the corporate person, but to the average consumer, "it's just too much." Scott Manthey arrived early the afternoon of June 28 to get in line at Oakridge. Part of the hype about the iPhone was the fear that there might not be enough for everybody who wanted one. But after the masses left Oakridge Mall, there were still iPhones left at the Apple store. So Manthey's long wait was unnecessary.
"It's OK. It was fun, and I still got the iPhone," Manthey said. Has the iPhone lived up to the hype? So far, the answer seems to be "Yes." Jacob Rangel, 30, of San Jose waited in line for 23 hours, but that didn't bother him at all.
"It was a small price to pay to get my hands on the future," he said.