That's it from Lara and I. Thanks for having me back for one night of passionate embrace with the gathered Sydney iPhone masses. From here out it'll be a lot easier to get your iPhone 3G, get your apps, and enjoy the love. Or avoid the heck out of it.

'Til next,
Shay

Lara Bingle, Bianca Dye, and Lote Tuqiri walked into a bar. They learned to use iPhones. They swanned about, looked the goods, and made it feel like a party. Vodafone may have been last out of the gates, with a crowd of something similar to Telstra (around 100 at doors open), but it offered a little more panache than the rest.

As token as celebrity appearances can be, these guys actually did seem to give some time to people in the queue, showing off the iPhones they had in hand.

Here Lara, Bianca (mid stroke), and Lote flank the first Vodafone iPhone owner, Dominic. All Brett Howell got was Fuzzy. Best caption wins a ROFLOL.

Telstra was a sedate affair, but kudos to them for making it pure business. They had plenty of staff in T[life], some queue space inside the warm premises (it was frosty frosty out on George St with a nasty ice wind to boot), plus flyers with the official plan details so you could make up your mind in the 10 seconds before purchase. Actually, they were taking the time to talk people through their current usage patterns and which way they should lean... but couldn't tell how many people were being told "20MB outta be enough for anyone" (remember that isn't even the LOWEST data plan).

However, there was no love given to the gathered queue, which by time of opening was around 80-100 strong. Given the icy conditions, it was a bit too "pure business" to show them absolutely no love -- doesn't compare well to the competition who were all treating queue members to warm drinks and tasty treats. There's a "leaving people out in the cold" allusion here I can't quite put my finger on...

While our earlier predictions proved true that everyone queued up at Apple Store would be for Optus, they are selling phones on plans for all carriers -- and if you head in there for Vodafone or Telstra plans you can expect to jump a very large section of the queue.

In my quasi-lucid state of all night bleariness I failed to confirm Apple Store status on contract versus pre-paid sales, and as most sales across all stores right now are focused on contract and not pre-paid the chances are pretty slim you could loophole that one there.

But queue jumping? Yeah, should work nicely for many T and V folks.

It's 5.00am and here's your iPhone 3G traffic report from Sydney. Things are still backed up at Optus Hunter St, though if you give it another 45 minutes (and you like white) you could get a clear run. Further up... Read More »

UPDATE: The trend continues, with Vodafone revealing to Gizmodo that the (reportedly very fast) sales through their online orders have had an 80:20 preference toward the black over the white. It seems black is, as ever, the REAL new black!

It seems Apple's white iPhone 3G is more white elephant than white hot. At the Optus queue, where at 5.00am the store is closing in on its 300th customer (if not there already), some in the queue have been warned by the time they get to the counter there may only be white left in 16GB.

Given the store had 500 units to begin with, and close to 200 up its sleeve, there is a very clear preference for black over white. Even at a roughly even distribution of 8GB and each of the two 16GB varieties it is sounding like the white is turning out to be very unpopular.

So if you make a play for Hunter St before you head to work, we really hope you like white... and if this trend continues, we could be seeing shortages based more on people's rejection of the white, and others feeling like they've had to settle for second best.

Here's the quick round up of the state of play right now:

- Optus still has 100+ to get through the queue, and have probably moved through 150 or so. They had a slow start due to the media circus, but are getting it going now.
- Optus is doing a good job of keeping the hordes happy. Plenty of coffee and hot chocolate, they've been doing cheeseburger runs, and even have 2-minute angels on hand giving out massages.
- At last check, there were 5 in the T[life] queue, 25 in the Apple Store queue, and no one at Vodafone.
- Our safe guess is that anyone at Apple Store is there for Optus plans, but don't have pre-reg. If they wanted Telstra or Voda, they'd be queuing elsewhere -- remember Apple Store is last to open.
- Voda is the hardest to 'count', as they don't have any one store going ahead of the rest.
- Apple Store has raised black curtains on the ground level. One level one we can see the iPod sign has been replaced with an iPhone sign across the back wall.
- We managed a quick peek through the curtains and the only thing we could see was the screensavers have been changed from iPod ads to iPhone 3G ads.

"I'm pumped!"

Immortal words from the man who queued up from, surprisingly, only about 1pm this afternoon. He got to cut the tape and everything.

UPDATE: It took 25 minutes for Brett to get through the transaction process. Let's hope things speed up as the night wears on, but whatever happens I think some people in this queue will still be here for a few hours more.

In his exit interview, what did Brett say he was going to do right now?
"I'm just going to go home and go to bed."
Words to live by...

There are now over 250 in the queue, backing twice around corners and potentially heading toward meeting the start of the queue on George St if people keeping arriving. The BIG news is there are 500 iPhone 3G available at this store, so being in the queue might be a little crazy, but it is definitely a GOOD thing if you want one today.

Apparently Whirlpool forums have had people thinking the store closes at 2am. WRONG. It stays open through until business Friday and until end of day. But by then I doubt they'll have any units left here. Elsewhere? Who knows.

The call "that makes 200" rang out at 10.30pm, and there are still plenty more people rolling up. The cab driver on the way in had already heard about the fuss down here at Hunter St, but didn't know what it was about.

"The iPhone goes on sale at midnight."

"Ooooh... I hear that's a bloody good phone!"

Naturally, a lot of the late arrivals are scoping the joint, looking for a weak link where they can jump the queue. To them, I say, GET TO THE BACK YOU *TARDS!!

More initial pics after the jump.

Read More »