Thousands Line Up Outside Apple Stores As iPhone 6 Goes On Sale
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Thousands of people lined up outside Apple stores across the Tri-State Area on Friday in the hope of getting their hands on the new iPhone 6, which is now officially on sale.
Apple employees high-fived and cheered on iPhone fans as they rushed into the company's flagship store on Fifth Avenue. The line, which some waited on for days, stretched around the corner and as far uptown as 78th Street.
Andreas Gibson was one of the first to get the new iPhone 6 Plus and he couldn't contain his excitement.
"Dear Lord, it's beautiful!" he said. "My birthday is on Sunday, so it's a birthday gift to myself. It's gorgeous!"
Summer Shahid of Bayside was among those in line early Friday morning.
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"It's two months back order," she told CBS 2's Janelle Burrell. "It's pretty crazy and I'm heading out next week, so I'm trying to get it before then."
She borrowed a friend's leather chair to make the wait a bit more comfortable. Others had been nestled together in sleeping bags for the last 10 days.
At the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey, eager customers waited in line around the building for hours. But some were left disappointed when the iPhone 6 Plus sold out just two hours after the store opened, 1010 WINS' Derricke Dennis reported.
Thousands Line Up Outside Apple Stores As iPhone 6 Goes On Sale
"I was here waiting in line for my boyfriend for the 6 Plus, but he's probably just going to have to get the 6 now," Katie Shutt said.
"I've been here maybe for the past five years and this is the longest, slowest line ever," Eda Sweetman said.
The iPhone 6 will have a screen measuring 4.7 inches, while the iPhone 6 Plus will be 5.5 inches. In both cases, app developers will be able to design apps that can be viewed differently when the phone is held horizontally.
"That's probably the biggest advantage of having the larger screen," said Brian Tong, senior editor at CNET.com. "Forget about whether you can carry it around or not, just by having a larger screen, people want it, want to see more."
Apple also introduced a system for using the phone to make credit card payments at retail stores.
Starting prices will be comparable to those in the past: $199 with a two-year contract for the iPhone 6 with 16 gigabytes of storage.
However, the step-up models will have double the memory than before: $299 for 64 gigabytes and $399 for 128 gigabytes. The iPhone 6 Plus phones will cost $100 more at each configuration.
Not everyone on line outside Apple's flagship store was there to buy the phone for themselves. There's a big market for iPhone resales, especially on the black market in most of China, CBS 2's Andrea Grymes reported.
Right now, the new models are only available in Hong Kong.
Ivan Drucker, founder and CEO of the Mac support company Ivan Expert, said Apple has not yet gotten the regulatory approval to sell outside of Hong Kong in China.
"Am I surprised there's a lot of reselling? I mean, of course not," Drucker said.
He said people can buy a no-contract iPhone here for $600-$800 and get two to three times that much in China.
"That's a lot of people willing to pay a lot of money for something they can't yet buy," Drucker said.
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