How to Get a 3G iPhone with No Wait — in Palo Alto

07.15.08 | Category: Interaction Design, Simplicity

Daunting lines wrapping Kipling street tighter than Apple shrink wrap don’t inspire you to join them. However, luck, timing, and circumstance collided. We were able to avoid the lines altogether.

ValleyZen on the iPhone 3G

Yesterday, umbrella shaded iPhone fans wilted in California sun. As of this morning Apple Palo Alto, Apple Stanford, Apple Los Gatos, and the AT&T store on El Camino were all “out of stock.” But on Saturday I chose twilight to step into the glass doors at Apple Stanford. That was the best possible moment. I was ushered in as the last customer of the day. No wait.

Unable to activate the phone because of a barcode issue, the store suspended the iPhone in a bizarre limbo. I was given a ticket and told:

“Return in 48 hours or head over to Apple Palo Alto.”

When I arrived at Apple Palo Alto, the line was 4 to 5 hours. But because I was in a suspended transaction, the friendly staff helped me pick up where I left off, and finish the transaction on the spot.
Done in 15 minutes.

Incoming calls were to be expected in six hours. But before even leaving the store, we received the first phone call!

A No-wait, No-line, No-expectation ValleyZen experience!

Bill and Drue check out the new iPhone 3G

The Zen of iPhone

Web browsing on the iPhone is a pleasure not because of all the bells and whistles, but because of what has been removed. What distinguishes the experience is what Apple has left out as well as what the new apps and websites redesigned for the iPhone have left out. Stripping away unessential menus, images and wording, you are left with clarity in the palm of your hand. The result? Less clutter. More intensity, meaning and functionality.

Bill and Drue would like to know what you think of the new iPhone?

Bill Fenwick and Drue Kataoka
Bill Fenwick & Drue Kataoka

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26 Comments so far

  1. NEENZ 07.15.08 at 8:33 pm

    Drue,

    Aloha! Through the coconut-wireless I’ve already learned that Hawaii stores were sold out. A re-work of our personal budget, anticipates 2 in white for next month’s shipment.

    Less clutter is appealing, and consolidation for organization via apps was the key factor in making the decision.

    NEENZ.

  2. Drue Kataoka 07.15.08 at 8:48 pm

    The coconut wireless —wow. We don’t have that fragrant type here in CA.
    So you will get two coconut colored iPhones then?

  3. Leslie 07.15.08 at 8:50 pm

    I’m so impressed! I’ve spent hours on the (non-i)phone with my brother, hearing about his daily quest for the holy grail. So far, in DC, he’s only managed to obtain pamphlet literature, which we’ve now discussed ad nausea. Cult of Apple? He’s a priest, and I guess I’m the recruit.

    In spite of this, neither of us were willing to put down money for an iphone before now, for exactly the reason you mention. The bells and whistles are wonderful, but, it’s the 3G’s ability to (according to those pamphlets) switch between EDGE and WiFi that make it suddenly so appealing. I’ve bought quite a few phones in the past for the wrong reasons–voice recognition texting! Over two years and I never even set it to my voice. A really great camera! Only ever photographed my cats.

    If my brother ever does get his phone, I can’t wait to see if this is the one with a smooth interface, and the ease of web browsing that made the idea behind the iphone so revolutionary in the first place…

    Readers: Are your new iphones worthy of Valley Zen, or, just another bill of goods, more complicated than it’s worth when it gets down to the day-to-day?

  4. Vlasta Diamant 07.15.08 at 8:56 pm

    I have no comment on the I-phone, because I don’t have one, although I enjoy its aesthetics, like all things “Apple”.
    Apple is a company after my heart: a maverick, highly innovative, witty, their customer service is
    nonpareil, their product design – a “lesson in Zen”.

    signed:

    an Apple aficionada

  5. Drue Kataoka 07.15.08 at 9:14 pm

    @ Leslie — Pamphlet literature, priests and recruits. Very interesting! After the DC hunt is over, we look forward to your and his review.

    @ Vlasta — Yes, Apple has been deeply influenced by Zen.

  6. Mark Evans 07.15.08 at 9:28 pm

    OK, being in the middle of working on a product that helps folks manage information overload, ValleyZen has been an Oasis, thought provoking, and of great value for me…

    ValleyZen has helped me think through difficult business situations, consider bold changes to product designs…. specifically, “Stripping away unessential menus, images and wording…” Hopefully resulting in “Less clutter. More intensity, meaning and functionality.”

    Also, ValleyZen has driven me to search out resources for thoughts, information and ideas based on simplicity. Right now I’m reading PresentationZen, Garr Reynolds and Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam, both excellent and actionable reads on simplicity and clarity.

    Mark

  7. Drue Kataoka 07.15.08 at 9:36 pm

    @ Mark – Bill and I are delighted to hear you feel ValleyZen is an Oasis. The ValleyZen community sprung up quickly and continues to grow. We enjoy hearing from people who are grappling with the challenges of reducing, streamlining and simplifying.

  8. Taylor Barcroft 07.15.08 at 10:28 pm

    I arrived at the Palo Alto Store from Santa Cruz at 5:50 AM Thursday morning July 10th just in time to find out 2 teenagers had spent Wednesday night around the corner. So I was number three. 26 hours later as I entered the store to the applause of all the employees, little did I know it would be another 8 hours before I would leave that store with my black 16GB iPhone. For I was going in with the trifekta of scenarios that Apple wasn’t set up to deal with.

    1. Porting in a Foreign Verizon Account.
    2. PO Box billing address.
    3. Area Code on Verizon account not he same as the area code where I live.

    We succeeded with my street address but failed with my out of region area code. After my helper consulted her superiors, I was told they could not complete my purchase and that I would have to go to an AT&T store to finish. That was not true, but no one in the Apple store knew it wasn’t true.

    So I drove 50 miles back to Capitola Mall where I found my AT&T store was already SOLD OUT at 11AM friday morning. No one there could tell me the solution – even the manager refused to tell me the solution until it dawned on me out in the parking lot and I went back in to ask him if I was right. “Oh yeah that’ll work”, he said. Thanks for nothing Mr. Manager.

    So I drove back over the Santa Cruz mountains and figured I could stop at the Los Gatos store to finish my deal but after more than an hour of haggling with corporate management outside the store, by the time they decided to help me complete my purchase they too were sold out of 16GB Black G3 iPhones. So I completed my drive back to the Palo Alto store (total 100 extra miles RT) where I had seen 2,000 iPhone G3’s delivered Thursday morning by UPS from Elk Grove.

    In I walked about 4PM and told them to make sure they understand that anyone in my situation can just take a new number in their home area code and then change it to the old other phone company’s with a phone call and a new SIM card which they can get for free from any AT&T Store. Took about 5 minutes to finish my sale I had started to complete about 8:15AM Friday morning. Saturday AT&T deployed employees to every Apple Store in America to avoid mistakes like I experienced Friday.

    What a catastrophie!! But I love it. It’s really a Pocket Mac + a Video iPod with a speaker. Oh and it’s a phone too.

  9. Drue Kataoka 07.15.08 at 10:43 pm

    @ Taylor
    We can count on you for a detailed and in depth account from the iPhone trenches! Pocket Mac is right. The quality of the speakers is quite impressive, but what do you think about the battery life?

  10. Taylor Barcroft 07.15.08 at 10:53 pm

    Battery life has been tested by several testing sites and it has been found to be the best battery life in its class. I find that I need to recharge it every evening. I was told by an Apple employee that one should always top it off but don’t leave it plugged in longer than it takes to get it back to the top. I also turn it fully OFF by holding the top power button down for several seconds to reveal the OFF slider in RED at the top.

  11. Taylor Barcroft 07.15.08 at 10:57 pm

    I also forgot to mention that if you combine your iPhone billing with your AT&T land line and DSL billing you save $4 plus you get FREE Peak Time Calls to all AT&T land lines in America. For this reason, I am probably going to kill my Hollywood number and switch it to a 408 or 650 number. Palo Alto is 650 right?

  12. Drue Kataoka 07.15.08 at 11:11 pm

    @ Taylor – I am recharging every night. With all the apps the iPhone runs, the places it goes and the things it does, no wonder it is tired and ready for an iPillow by night fall.

  13. Ronald Barnett 07.16.08 at 1:53 am

    My expereince was 7.5 hrs to “realize” iPhone – 3.5 hrs in line and 4 hrs in store. I’ll spare you the details for the latter and only say there was a conflict between Apple and AT&T regarding what I should pay. AT&T wouldn’t budge and in the end Apple gave me a $300 refund on a previous purchase and I obtained the 16GB version for only $200, $100 less than advertised. Less truly is more! Apple rocks and solidified a friendship.

    The “phone” rocks as well and I love it. It is a superb instantiation of how simplicity in desgin does not mean simplistic but raher a clean perception of what is essential and what is peripheral.

  14. Andrew Zamler-Carhart 07.16.08 at 3:39 am

    I remember the line the day that the Palo Alto Apple Store opened! Although I didn’t have to wait in it, because my boss at Apple had been camped out in a lawn chair since five in the morning or so.

    I’m still one of those curious creatures who doesn’t have a mobile phone at all and doesn’t want one. I tend to be an early adopter, and then an early rejector. For example, I had an Apple Newton PDA before anybody else knew what a PDA was, and I took it everywhere. Then I realized that I didn’t need it.

    Similarly, I had a Motorola StarTAC before anybody I knew had a cell phone, let alone a digital phone or a flip phone. I gave up having a mobile because I find them socially awkward. I don’t like the interruptions that they cause when you receive a call at a time you weren’t expecting. Eating, driving, having a personal conversation, these are all things that I wouldn’t want to have interrupted.

    As an interface designer, I also find that basically all mobile phones have despicably dreadful interfaces. Using a numeric keypad to enter text is savage at best, and I refuse to do it. I always said, “well, if *Apple* made a phone, I’d buy one.” So then they did. Now it’s more like “if Apple made a phone I could *afford*…”

    The new subsidized iPhone 3G certainly offers a cheaper handset, but the rate plans are murderously expensive when you consider that I’m not upgrading from some other plan. Basically what I want is… well, an iPhone without the phone, so that’s what I got.

    The iPod touch (32 GB) is brilliant, thin and extremely capable. Sure, there’s a bit of hunting around for an open wifi network, but it’s a lot easier than with a PowerBook. It’s a complete travel replacement for a laptop for me, and it’s a lot lighter too! I can do all my web and email stuff, and I even watched an hour long TV show on YouTube while I was traveling.

    I’m looking forward to exploring all the great apps that are now available, starting with the Remote program at my next house party! Then there’s writing some myself…

  15. Drue Kataoka 07.16.08 at 6:27 am

    @ Ronald – Thanks for sharing your 7.5 hour epiphany. Great observations.

    @ Andrew – A Zen response. For you, the ideal iPhone is the iPhone of no Phone! Glad you are enjoying your svelte runway thin iPod touch. I think the remote app rocks. We look forward to seeing your next app. What general area are you working on?

    For you and anyone following this thread how do you think the response to and use of the iPhone/iPods is experienced differently around the world? Any cultural insights?

    An Apple Newton PDA, now that’s a real statement. Sporting the MessagePad is some serious Apple retro chic.

  16. Taylor Barcroft 07.16.08 at 6:28 am

    @ Andrew – Well I’ve had the 32GB iPod Touch since January and that is specifically why I had to buy the iPhone G3. The Touch is a gimick that shows you why you need the phone. I was frequently juggling looking up phone numbers in my address book on my iPod Touch then having to enter them into my Verizon cell phone to complete a call to someone. I also found finding wi-fi locations to also be a very tedious process that ate more time than it’s worth. So while you find the touch the right fit for you, I found it as merely a stepping stone to the iPhone once I understood what the phone has that the touch is missing. I don’t care about the monthly cost of the iPhone. I can afford it. And it’s worth it to me.

  17. Drue Kataoka 07.16.08 at 6:35 am

    @ Taylor – Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Indeed Apple is ingenious in making devices that fit all of our needs. Our ValleyZen audience is demanding of the highest quality too!

  18. Michael F. Martin 07.16.08 at 9:35 am

    A kaisen blitz the iphone is.

  19. Drue Kataoka 07.16.08 at 10:29 am

    @ Michael — And you talk of Kaizen in YodaSpeak too! Thanks.

  20. Bao Nguyen 07.16.08 at 10:58 am

    Drue, I ordered 5 new 3G iphone for work. one out of five the home button is not working.

    Here is my quick review:
    The new iPhone came with 2 colors, I love the black one but it show your finger print. If you don’t want any finger print than get the white iphone. Voice qualiy is not that great, the mic too sensitive that pick up wind noise. In my conclusion the iphone work great for web browsing and you tube.

  21. Drue Kataoka 07.16.08 at 11:18 am

    @ Bao – With 5 iPhone 3Gs you are a power user. Thanks for your input!

  22. Henry Oh 07.26.08 at 7:18 am

    I would like to give my input from the other side of the world (Hong Kong) on the iPhone.

    I recently attended the iPhone Party HK (http://iphoneparty.hk) and the buzz surrounding the event was amazing. All the more so when you consider that it initially started as a grassroots Facebook event put together by the Internet community here in Hong Kong. 3, the exclusive distributor of the iPhone in HK, initially declined to get involved. But when they saw that 900+ people signed up for a venue that can only hold 400 or so, they saw the light and gave the event their blessing and some $$$.

    The demand for the iPhone here is intense, especially because it comes UNLOCKED. Availability is a bit of a problem though, not because of a lack of supply (rumor has it) but because it is taking 3 a while to unlock the iPhones that they are receiving from Apple. So for now, it is only being offered to selective customers (e.g., those whose contracts are finished, with the iPhone being the lure to get them to sign another contract).

    The iPhone Party HK had a contest for the best “dream” iPhone app.

    My favorite suggestion: The “Beam Me Up, Scotty” app.

  23. Taylor Barcroft 07.26.08 at 1:46 pm

    RE: my post #11. I also forgot to mention that if you combine your iPhone billing with your AT&T land line and DSL billing you save $4 plus you get FREE Peak Time Calls to all AT&T land lines in America. For this reason, I am probably going to kill my Hollywood number and switch it to a 408 or 650 number. Palo Alto is 650 right?

    Trouble is Unity doesn’t work if your base service is less than $59.99 so I wound up not doing it because $39.99 + $30 + $5 = $75 + Taxes which are another $15 for a total of around $90 is more than I wish I had to pay in the first place and rollover minutes make going from 450 minutes a month to many thousands available possible with a little conservatism on usage in the opening months of service. I’m already at 720 PEAK minutes in my new month that started yesterday thanks to rollover.

  24. Drue Kataoka 07.26.08 at 8:17 pm

    @ Henry
    Thanks for this report live from the iPhone party in HK. You’ve transported us or I should say “beamed us” there. Great VZ reporting.

  25. Bill Fenwick 07.27.08 at 4:50 pm

    Taylor comment # 23. Good information. Yes, 650 is Palo Alto Area Code.

  26. Bill Fenwick 07.27.08 at 5:14 pm

    Henry, Who do you think would want to be an alpha site for such an application?

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