Business & Tech

iPhone Hopefuls Camp for Hours at Bellevue Square Apple Store

Between 175 and 200 people waited in line for the iPhone 5 launch at the Bellevue Square Apple Store Friday morning.

More than 175 people waited in line for the iPhone 5 launch at the Bellevue Square Apple Store Friday morning.

Some stayed overnight, like Antonio Hunter of Bellevue, who was first in line for this iPhone, and has lined up for "all of them."

"I guess I’m what you call an 'Apple fanboy,' " he said.

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"It’s a good product, a lot of people want it," he said. He waits in line, "just to make sure I could have it first."

Hunter said he never has ordered it online, and has opted to get products on the first day by waiting in line.

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"It’s kind of a different experience," he said. "It’s a chance to associate with other people kind of like you, with the same general interest in technology."

Aaron Kirby of Seattle also waited overnight. His iPhone broke a little more than a year ago, and he said he's been waiting for the new phone to come out.

"I've been waiting 15 months and 12 hours," he said Friday morning after he picked up his phone at the Apple Store. He was headed to show his new phone to his friend, who was waiting in line at the AT&T store for his own iPhone 5.

There also was a long line at the AT&T store.

Others showed up a few hours before the opening.

Bruce Ryan of Bellevue decided to come at 4:45 a.m., to be at the store when it opened at 8 a.m., but to avoid waiting overnight, to get his first iPhone and to buy a new iPhone for his wife.

"It was a long line, but it was shorter than I had feared."

"I couldn’t make up my mind on the night when they went on presale," he said. "I missed out on that, so I figured I better come down today and get one."

He's upgrading from an old Nokia phone that he's had for four years.

"The Apple people have treated us really nicely. They got us coffee," he said.

After several iterations of iPhones, it's now a bit of a tradition—the iPhone 5 went on sale Friday morning at 8 a.m., and people around the country queued up at Apple Stores to be the first to get their hands on one.

Apple reopened its new Bellevue Square Apple Store location, which is three times bigger than its previous storefront, just in time for the iPhone 5 launch.

The iPhone 5 .

Within one hour, online pre-orders sold out, compared to a 20-hour time period for the iPhone 4 and 22 hours for the iPhone 4s, according to the Huffington Post. Apple said Monday that iPhone 5 preorders topped 2 million in 24 hours.

Did you get your hands on an iPhone 5 today? Tell us your first impressions of the new device in the comments section.


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