iPhone 5 lines cropping up across country, overseas
With two days till the iPhone 5 goes on sale, Apple Stores in Texas, California, and Michigan see groups of would-be buyers start to form lines. And Samsung releases attack ads at just the right time.
Across the country and overseas, small groups of potential iPhone 5 buyers have begun to form lines outside of Apple Stores.
Employees at Apple Stores in Chicago; Palo Alto, Calif.; and Southlake, Texas; confirmed that people began waiting outside their stores starting today. People are also waiting for the iPhone 5 to go on sale in Sydney, Australia. According to MobilePhoneFinder.com.au, which helps users compare cell phone plans, one of the company's employees is first in line in Sydney. The company said that because of the time zones, its employee will be the first Apple customer in the world to buy an iPhone 5.
That's all well and good, but talk about Johnny Come Lately. Some of the line sitters at Apple's 5th Avenue store in Manhattan have been in line since Thursday.
Meanwhile, Samsung has released another attack ad against the iPhone 5. The South Korea-based company just released a commercial that makes fun of people who wait in lines for Apple's handset. An online version of the clip is going viral -- just at the time that lines are starting to form in multiple locations.
From a competitive point of view, the timing was brilliant. The goal seems obvious: to embarrass young iPhone fans into staying home instead of line sitting.
Samsung and Apple have become fierce rivals in the mobile market. The acrimony between the companies was only exacerbated by a lawsuit Apple filed last year that accused Samsung of ripping off the technology and design behind the iPhone and iPad. Apple recently won the first round when a jury found Samsung liable for patent infringement. Samsung has promised to appeal.
And Samsung's attempts to throw cold water on the white hot iPhone 5 demand don't appear to be having much effect. Yesterday, Apple saw a wave of positive reviews for the iPhone 5 from some of the country's top media outlets.
So far, all the signs indicate that Apple is going to sell an unprecedented number of phones.