As expected, the lines for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in Sydney were clearly shorter this year than for all the previous iPhones before it, with Apple’s true 2017 flagship still to arrive on 3 November.
As you can see from the embedded video below, the launch lines for Apple’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus weren’t as long as the lines for the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, or for many iPhones before it.
While critics will say the usual things they say at this point in time, the reality is that Apple takes just as much advantage of pre-order sales periods as does competitors like Samsung, who no-one expects to have lines at its stores at all.
There’s also the fact that Apple’s iPhones sell in the hundreds of millions each year, hundreds of millions more than all of Samsung, LG, Motorola, Huawei, Sony, Google, HTC and everyone else’s flagships combined.
{loadposition alex08}Indeed, if you want an excellent article on who will buy the iPhone 8 and why, and why people much prefer familiar form factors rather than out there and significantly different designs, as was the norm during the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 5.x and 6.x eras, then Daniel Eran Dilger’s absolute must-read editorial entitled “Who will buy iPhone 8?” is extremely illuminating.
Crowds form overnight queues for iPhone 8 launch https://t.co/6PR6WqcUEq pic.twitter.com/7aMeop3kLk
— The Straits Times (@STcom) 21 September 2017
It also illuminates why long lines on day one of retail availability are utterly irrelevant – a record iPhone quarter does not depend on a long line at an iPhone store.
What matters is long-term sales, and with the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus set to be Apple’s major mass-market sellers, along with the now cheaper iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and the even more affordable iPhone SE, with the crowning iPhone X still to come this quarter, Apple should have an extremely healthy sales period indeed – as usual!
iPhone 8 line launch event Sydney Apple Store – 22 September, Australia:
iPhone 8 Plus unboxing video inside Sydney Apple Store:
Leaving the Apple store at 8.26am: