Some people suggest our headlines don’t always match the content, but I don’t agree. In this case, the headline results from the fact that I made three attempts to buy an iPhone 3G before I succeeded. I hope you appreciate my dedication to the task, or my stupidity for wasting so much time before I was actually able to buy one.

It all started early Friday morning. I had assumed that the nearby AT&T factory store wouldn’t be inundated with shoppers waiting to buy one. That would seem to be the province of an Apple Store.

But I was totally wrong. When I arrived at the nearest AT&T outlet, nearly 150 people were waiting in line. I walked casually to the rear, asking someone offhandedly if this was the “Star Wars” line? My foolish remark earned a few chuckles and perhaps a number of episodes of rolling eyes.

An AT&T salesperson came by shortly thereafter. He said that they had 80 phones in stock, but nobody budged.

Except me, after I asked the location of the next nearest store.

There, the situation seemed more promising. The crowd was closer to 100, and had begun to shrink rapidly. But nobody from AT&T showed up to reassure anyone that they could actually take an iPhone home. So I had someone reserve my place, walked to the entrance and had a brief conversation with the sole AT&T employee in evidence outside.

As I feared, they said they didn’t have near enough product to fill the demand, but they could take the order and have it shipped directly to the store “in a few days.”

At this point, I was tempted to simply give up the quest, at least for that day.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 6:30 PM and is filed under News and tagged with: activation, America, ancient artifacts, ancient astronauts, Apple Store, Chandler, Computer, Computer America, Craig Crossman, Iphone, iPhone 3G, Jason Snell, MobileMe, Night Owl, Npd Group, performance, sales prospects, Salesperson, Steve Jobs, waiting in the wings, World Traveler.