The iPhone Experience

And so the faithful day arrives... our reserved time slot was between 6pm and midnight, we know that there is a launch party from 6pm to 8pm, after which then they will start selling the first phone. Excitedly we were there and started queuing at 10:40pm thinking that by then, the crowd should be thinner and that I could just walk in and pick up my reserved phone.

But when I reached tail of queue, I saw the other side has a big crowd and some loud music going on. Curiously, I asked the volunteer walking by what queue is that? His answer sent shiver down my spine... "That is the head of the queue, is snakes around the Comcentre and the expected waiting time is around 5-6 hours long.

I told my wife to go home and rest while I embark onto this adventure myself. I will show how much I love her by allowing myself to go through the back-breaking process and get the phone of her desire... Even if I have to crawl to the sale counter, I will do it... (Like real...)


It wasn't that bad when the queue is in a single file...


It went around and disappeared in the corner... I thought to myself that its not as bad as he said.


But when I made it to the corner, I then realized that queue zig-zagged up and down the same area several times before heading to the next corner.


Almost 2 hours later, I finally got my wrist band confirming that I am purchasing an iPhone.

Along the way, there were people bringing us junk food and mineral water. I took the water but regulated the intake, I can't risk having "high-tide" while I'm alone in the queue for the next 5 hours.


At 2:40am, I reached the part of the building where the sales are going on. But there are 7 lines of zig-zag, each line is about 30 meters long before reaching the building.

By then, my back was aching and stiff, my feet were sore and tired...

In fact, everyone looked tired. Some are cussing at Singtel management that they have not exercised any control in restricting those Saturday and Sunday time slot people into the queue but allow only those who were rightful Friday time slot to have priority to purchase the phone. The fact that they let anyone who had an email printout of an reservation go into the queue has caused the long hours wait and unhappiness among the customers.


By 4am, I reached the queue number collection point.

My number was K1879...


There are 60 over counters serving at the same time, workers have been selling iPhone for the last 10 hours, the lady serving us was so tired that she mistaken my price plan and wanted to charge me $985 for the 16Gb phone. But good thing she woke up in time to realise that it should be 1/3 of that price.

Now, my lovely wife is the proud owner of the latest iPhone 3Gs