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back to article Fanbois iVaporate: Smallest Apple iPhone queues ever

iPhone fanbois have iVaporated: The Register has visited the same suburban Apple Store we always stalk visit on iPhone launch day and found just thirty people queueing. Apple has warned that this year it won't have lots of phones waiting for walk-in customers, which explains most of the shortfall. But that didn't deter people …

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  1. Sgt_Oddball

    Stale apples?

    Even some of the most ardent fans of iPhones I know (including a friend who has a 6+ in pink rose gold....) are starting to get annoyed by what's increasingly feeling like 'me too' or change for the sake of arbitrary change.

    On the other hand, credit to Apple where credit is due once you buy an iphone, if you keep it well it really doesn't lose anywhere near as much value as pretty much every other phone so trading up isn't such a burden as you might think.

    I do however wonder just what posses people to queue for an electronic device though?

    21 1 Reply
    1. goldcd
      Reply Icon

      What else can you queue up for any more?

      Your music is digital, your premiere tickets are booked online weeks in advance, your game pre-loads for the midnight unlock.

      I mean it's obviously fucked that you're sleeping in a fucking mall to get the chance to spend the best part of a grand on a phone, that's barely better than the last one, and millions will have within a few weeks based on a rolling contract plan second only in cost to your mortgage on an actual fucking house you live in..

      ..but you takes what you can, in this modern age.

      28 2 Reply
      1. Kevin Fairhurst
        Reply Icon

        Re: What else can you queue up for any more?

        Your mortgage is £35 a month?? How old are you expecting to be when you retire? ;)

        7 0 Reply
        1. enormous c word
          Reply Icon

          Re: What else can you queue up for any more?

          My mortgage is £37 /month - I feel ripped off now ;-)

          2 0 Reply
        2. dbayly
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          Re: What else can you queue up for any more?

          Your mortgage is £35 a month??

          It's for a phonebox

          0 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What else can you queue up for any more?

        I'd say the decreasing lines are because fewer and fewer people think it is any fun to wait in line when they can preorder what they want and have it shipped to them. It is really just the diehards who probably do it every year who are still out there participating in that silliness.

        2 0 Reply
    2. Pompous Git Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Stale apples?

      trading up isn't such a burden as you might think.

      Trading up costs nothing chez Git. The Gitling gives us his cast-offs and they are rarely even 2 years old. He just gave me another Dell 27" because he just purchased a 4k curved screen monster jobbie, monitor so now I have two Dell 27" monitors. Life is good :-)

      15 1 Reply
      1. Sgt_Oddball
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        Re: Stale apples?

        Awww... I only have 3 22"er's....

        0 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Stale apples?

      "On the other hand, credit to Apple where credit is due once you buy an iphone, if you keep it well it really doesn't lose anywhere near as much value as pretty much every other phone"

      Depreciation is often due mainly to market perception - look at car depreciation for an obvious example, where the rate may be 10% different for different versions of the same model.

      However, I have found that the way to get the lowest depreciation is just to buy popular Androids just before the new model is announced, when the fire sale of the old one is on. A year later, the price may have changed only slightly. If you don't mind lagging the latest technology by a year you can save a lot of money - and by the time you buy, the bugs have been sorted.

      9 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        depreciation

        I usually wait for the depreciation curve to level off. with cars , that means buying them for £400 at 12 years old.

        With phones , that means being given a used once Lumia535 with win10 on it cos the owner didnt like winphones.

        5 0 Reply
    4. King Jack
      Reply Icon

      What posses people to queue for an electronic device?

      Stupidity.

      13 0 Reply
  2. AlexS

    People have less money to waste.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Sebastian A
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      Most iFanBois have already been bled dry by yearly thousand-dollar phone upgrades.

      11 5 Reply
      1. cali
        Reply Icon

        As opposed to who? iKnockoff fanboys who only dream of innovation, who couldn't afford an iPhone 5c case to save their lives?

        2 29 Reply
        1. hplasm
          Reply Icon
          Gimp

          Fanboys who only dream of innovation

          Can't wait for the next iInnovation- the no-Screen iPhone.

          1 0 Reply
          1. Vince
            Reply Icon

            Re: Fanboys who only dream of innovation

            What you mean the iPhone Shuffle?

            Sounds reasonable, I can hear Ive now "We believe in a truly screenless future. By removing the screen that everyone smashed anyway, we've been able to make the thinnest phone EVER"

            0 0 Reply
          2. Trigonoceps occipitalis
            Reply Icon

            Re: Fanboys who only dream of innovation

            I had one of those once, made of Bakelite.

            (Made from the hooves of a Nuga.)

            0 0 Reply
    2. cali
      Reply Icon

      Did you even read the article? iPhone 7 is sold out and breaking records.

      4 24 Reply
      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        @cali

        Are you related to JJ Carter?

        6 0 Reply
      2. d3vy
        Reply Icon

        "iPhone 7 is sold out"

        The fact that they "sell out" *every year* suggests apple are shit at planning and don't manufacture enough, or do it on purpose to get the free "iPhone stocks sell.out in 24hours" headlines.

        21 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          @d3vy - selling out every year

          No it does not mean they are "shit at planning", it means that the demand at first is far higher than it is the rest of the year. They can't have Foxconn build/staff manufacturing facilities sufficient to supply 5x as much for a month as what they do the rest of the time.

          They could start working on building them months earlier to build up a much larger launch inventory, I suppose, but there are a few problems with that. 1) it lengthens the time when details about them will leak, 2) it causes them to have to use older technology since it would need to be in a "final" state months earlier than it does now, 3) they'd still have to guess how many people are going to want to buy each combination of model, color and storage, and since they are further segmented by other stuff like the cellular chip used (at least in the US) that's yet another. If they ended up with a million extra rose gold 7 plus 128GB AT&T/T-mobile models, what the heck do they do with them?

          2 0 Reply
          1. d3vy
            Reply Icon

            Re: @d3vy - selling out every year

            @Doug

            Fair point, however, Like I said, they do it every year. They have had plenty of time to address the issue of high demand at release. They know their products are popular, they know there is an increased demand at release date, they could rectify this, however I suspect that they dont want to.. because it causes hype, which potentially leads to more sales.

            If they even just changed the way that they did the release, instead of trying to be secretive and do a global launch they could easily announce the spec months in advance and take pre-orders (Bonus they will know up front how many they have sold up front).

            Added bonus, if they make the announcement when they finalise the spec and testing they would appear to be beating other manufacturers to market with some of the tech... rather than what happens now when the announce an iphone with new tech that samsung has been using for the last 6 months.

            To answer your question about the 1million surplus Rose Gold phones... Call them 7S and release them next year... :)

            0 0 Reply
      3. Planty Bronze badge
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        What records, lowest number of phones produced prior to launch to ensure a sell-out?

        What idiot believes that manufactured hype?

        3 0 Reply
      4. Vince
        Reply Icon

        "Sold out"

        ...well if you make a stupidly low number, but have something stupidly popular that isn't tricky.

        "Breaking Records"

        ...for? Given no sales data is being released.

        0 0 Reply
  3. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

    Maybe the concept of a phone requiring an adapter to connect headphones or earphones is just a bit too blatantly stupid.

    What next? The iPhone 8 will require an eyeball adapter so that you can see the screen?

    37 5 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

      Someone already worked out that you can remove the polarizer from an LCD and put one on your glasses so the screen looks white to everyone else and normal to you (and anyone who carries around polarizing filters just in case). But if it were some variety of OLED instead, that's a non-starter. Anyway, as photons were always trendy enough to be wireless, perhaps the screens are safe for now.

      7 0 Reply
      1. Tchou
        Reply Icon
        Holmes

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        "photons were always trendy enough to be wireless"

        Sound is wireless too, and that's why humans wanted to bound it to one ears only so the others around don't hear.

        Just sayin'.

        4 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sound is wireless

          true, true. TBH there's no wireless thing between a phone/cpu/whatever and the actual photon emitters to match headphones, well unless they come up with stereo-optic Apple iFaceHugger that uses HDMI-over-Bluetooth then God help us.

          0 0 Reply
    2. Pompous Git Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

      What next? The iPhone 8 will require an eyeball adapter so that you can see the screen?

      Already got one. It's called a magnifying glass and I need it for any smartphone. Never owned or used an iPhone.

      7 0 Reply
    3. cali
      Reply Icon

      Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

      Yeah Apple was stupid for removing the mobile keyboard and flobby disk drive!!!! Stupid most successful company in history!!!!!123

      4 34 Reply
      1. MiguelC Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        Oooh yes, I still remenber my old mobile phone with its 8 inch floppy disk drive...

        18 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        I see the Apple haters are out in force today (as usual).

        I wonder if they are Note 7 users suffering from withdrawal.

        4 17 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

          I see the Apple Haters are well and truly out in force today.

          Sure is entertaining.

          It don't matter to me as I use an old Motorola dumb phone. No reason to get a so called smart phone.

          4 1 Reply
        2. Templogin
          Reply Icon

          Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

          Note 7, the phone for people who can't afford iPhones, but can afford fire extinguishers.

          0 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

            "Can't afford iPhones".

            Are people still using that old chestnut and still thinking that owning an iPhone someone elevates you to the higher echelons of society and that it is out of reach of mortal man? You're wrong.

            As well as the "rich", every man, dog, kid, student, drug dealer & tramp has one too. Paying £25 a month as part of your phone contract isn't indicative of wealth, no matter how much you'd like to think it is.

            0 0 Reply
      3. IsJustabloke
        Reply Icon
        Trollface

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        @cali

        Don't you hate that when it happens.... there you are happily hammering away at the "!" key when your finger slips and you finish with a bunch of random letters/numbers.

        Still it does add a touch of the "frothing at the mouth" to your contribution... so kudos.

        12 0 Reply
      4. Yugguy
        Reply Icon

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        Flobby disk drive? Were Bill and Ben actually pioneers in portable storage?

        6 0 Reply
      5. Vince
        Reply Icon

        Re: Maybe some people already own nice headphones or earphones...

        Sigh.

        So the reason this floppy drive thing isn't relevant is because that was a dying standard. The disks couldn't hold enough data, were painfully slow and so on.

        The headphone jack, apart from needing some space is ubiquitous, easy, cheap and importantly doesn't require licensing from Apple to create accessories. It would have of course taken "courage" to make that no longer require a license and make it a free option so everyone could move to a different connector and standard without paying Apple for the right.

        7 0 Reply
  4. Youngone Silver badge

    Hardly Scientific

    My wife's friends are the iPhone target market, and up until this year they all owned one.

    I noticed a few weeks ago when a group of us went out that my wife is the only one still using one.

    The rest of them had a Samsung of one kind or another.

    I don't know the reason, but it won't be because of the price.

    13 2 Reply
    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Hardly Scientific

      It adds an extra bit of excitement ti their daily routine, never knowing when it's going to go up in smoke?

      13 2 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hardly Scientific

      Ahem, obviously they are not the target market ;)

      2 0 Reply
    3. cali
      Reply Icon

      Re: Hardly Scientific

      iPhone doesn't have a target market. This is as stupid as saying Coca Cola has a target market.

      0 31 Reply
      1. Kane
        Reply Icon

        Re: Hardly Scientific

        iWut?

        0 0 Reply
      2. John Bailey
        Reply Icon

        Re: Hardly Scientific

        "iPhone doesn't have a target market. This is as stupid as saying Coca Cola has a target market."

        So not in fact, stupid at all.

        16 1 Reply
      3. Tchou
        Reply Icon
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Hardly Scientific

        "This is as stupid as saying Coca Cola has a target market."

        Well I have some bad news for you : you're most probably in Coca-Cola target market and it isn't exactly shiny

        11 0 Reply
      4. hplasm
        Reply Icon
        Gimp

        Re: Hardly Scientific

        "iPhone doesn't have a target market...."

        Probably the same as Coca Cola's, McD's, Disney etc.

        Bored twits with too much spare cash.

        BTW- you have spittle on your iPhone 7. Best to queue up for a new one...

        5 1 Reply
      5. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hardly Scientific

        iPhone doesn't have a target market.

        No? Then how comes that only (stupid) people with too much money on their hands buy them? Owning an IPhone is a status symbol, especially among younger people. You know, like assholes buying BMW, older men buying Porsche and so on.

        0 0 Reply
  5. whoseyourdaddy

    Why burn vacation days when I can have it delivered to my doorstep?

    Or, more importantly, why pay a premium on Ebay to someone who stood in line?

    7 0 Reply
    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Vacation days..?

      LOL

      This is Australia, we take 'sickies' for this type of lark.

      5 0 Reply
      1. Pompous Git Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Vacation days..?

        Downside to retirement: no sickies! :-(

        6 0 Reply

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