Cupertino, CA—Today, iPhone customers have lined up again in anxious anticipation of returning the overpriced hype-phone and purging their buyer's remorse by receiving a full refund of their $500-600 misplaced investment.
"I was too amped up to sleep or think clearly," said Pablo Defendini, 28, a graphic designer. "Apple has a knack for creating very easy-to-use products surrounded by a reality distortion field that makes them appear to be exponentially better than they actually are. Their deceptive touch in the cell phone market is long overdue, I believe."
David Zho, 21, an Xbox video game tester who came with a friend to get some iced cream next door, looked at the line in amazement.
"I would just lend the money to a friend for a weekend, and then ask for it back. You waste less time. Instead of camping out three to four days, you just get your money back three or four days after."
Above: The Apple receiving line anxiously accepts their products back, providing returning customers with bottled water and sunscreen.
Zho wasn't even planning to get an iPhone and then return it. Though he wants one to return now, he said he'd wait to purchase and return a second version - once Apple and AT&T work out any bugs.
Apple itself has set a target of selling 10 million units worldwide by 2008, and accepting 9.8 million returns that same year, gaining roughly a .001 percent share of the cell phone market. It's expected to go on sale in Europe later this year and in Asia in 2008.
But unlike its foray into digital music players, Apple faces competition in cell phones from deep-pocketed, well-established giants, such as Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc., who have extensive experience disappointing customers and accepting returns on their devices.
Even a gadget-loving person like Gene Cram, who briefly owned a BlackBerry Pearl smart phone from Research in Motion Ltd., and has briefly owned an older Palm Inc. Treo phone and even more briefly owned a Motorola SLVR, said he's going to wait for customer reviews before investing in what appears to be the latest must-have piece of techno-wizardry for a few days before returning it.
"It'll be interesting to see how it feels to briefly be the owner of an iPhone," Cram, a flight instructor, said Thursday at a cafe next door to the Apple store in Burlingame, where lines hadn't yet appeared.