The Day After

Since I was in the vicinity of an Apple Store today, I decided to stop in at the Burlington Mall and see the iPhone for myself. Big mistake. Huge. Not because the lines were so long or because the crowds were so off-putting, or even because the store had run out of them. None of that was the case. No, it was a mistake because I've been hearing the buzz on the thing since CES and had read so many rapturous reviews and articles over the past week, and now that I actually had one in my hands and was having such a good time playing with it, all I could say was instead of simply wanting one, now I really wanted one.

It's a testament to the salesfolk — or at least the one I spoke with — that they're not jaded or tired of answering the same questions. In fact, it seemed like many were just as jazzed about the thing as I was. And they're all so well trained. Even my citing of the iPhone's one biggest flaw — the AT&T service — didn't trip my guy up. And though I'd read a bunch about the device and had come to my own conclusions about when I might buy one, he stayed on-message, which was that this is the single best gadget out there right now and look at all the cool things it can do. Not that I needed to be sold on it, but he certainly made it harder to walk away.

(What was nice to learn, I suppose, was that Apple Store employees get no discounts or special treatment in getting the phones, which sorta confirms this L.A. Times story. For example, the salesguy I chatted with hadn't yet secured his own iPhone and said if there were any left, he'd get one tonight. He also told me that his co-workers had to wait on line like the rest of the customers yesterday, or had to wait till those who had been on line got theirs. How democratic.)

I thought I could wait until v2.0 to buy an iPhone. Hell, I thought it was too expensive an investment. But now, after playing with one in the store, and seeing how cool it actually is, I'm finding the iPhone much harder to resist. Dammit!!!