A recently made documentary about Apple’s own iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launches details the kinds of conditions that people endure to stay in iPhone launch lines in order to secure day one iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 pluses from the Apple store. This problem has only gotten worse as Apple’s products continue to gain more fans and increase in popularity. It used to be that people would wait in line all morning or all night in order to get an iPhone, but because of the sheer amount of people and Apple’s own desire to create fanfare, they’ve aggravated this problem.
Sure, there are plenty of people that absolutely must have the phone on day one, and brag about it or whatever, but the reality of the situation is that there are now people who’s job it is to wait in line for the iPhone and then sell it to the person who actually ends up with the phone and who has financially supported the whole operation. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with waiting online and trying to sell it to the highest bidder on eBay, this is America and you can do whatever you like. But after watching this documentary, there’s no way that you can think that such behavior is actually helping Apple’s image or marketing. It comes off as tasteless and a commentary of how awful these product launches have gotten.
When I was in San Francisco around the time of the iPhone launch for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus I heard that the situation was very similar to that of what was going on in New York, a lot of older Chinese people waiting in line who would clearly not be buying the phones for themselves. Cult of Mac confirms this in their own article about resellers crowding out the rest of the line.
Photo of SF Line – Credit: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
