iPhone 3G Launch Report: Miami Edition

My day started bright and early at 5AM, and after getting all my things together I made my way to the Apple Store at The Falls in Miami. I'd been told the previous night that the mall would not be allowing people to make a line next to the Apple Store until 6AM, but by the time I got there at 6, there was already a line of at least 110 people.

Curse them!

I settled into "wait in line mode," complete with snacks in my backpack (hey, I was a Boy Scout - always be prepared!)

At 6:20AM a Miami-Dade police officer came by and warned everyone that she would not tolerate line cutting or any "funny business," and that no one could hold a place in line for anyone else. The person in the line is the person that must make the purchase. She had a serious look about her that told you you did not cross her under pain of bodily injury. Unfortunately, she asked that she not be photographed.

I started chatting up the folks next to me in line, first speaking to Eddie Quiñon, a contractor, who told me he was here because "you're either all in or you're all out." His main reason for getting an iPhone 3G? "My old iPhone is too slow."

There was a general murmur of agreement in the crowd around me as they wielded their old iPhones.

Yilien, a friendly mall employee who was standing in line on my other side, said that this would be her first iPhone:

"I'm with T-Mobile, but I lost my phone and all T-Mobile has is the Sidekick, which is crap, in my opinion. The iPhone is the best, and so I'm getting a family plan with my boyfriend. There's so many people on AT&T so I'll be able to call them for free!

Soon after at 6:30AM, Apple employees started making their way down the line handing out brochures with information regarding the rate plans and eligibility for purchasing the iPhone 3G, including warnings that all corporate customers needed to go to an AT&T store to buy the iPhone 3G.

At 7AM, a couple of employees started making their way down the line with both the white and black iPhone 3Gs for people to fondle and look at. Finally, I could make a decision on the colour!

The black definitely looks sleeker. There's something about the silver apple accent on the black plastic backing that's just much sexier than the silver on white of the white iPhone 3G.

The sun was beginning to shine down on us with the trademark tropical Miami heat, but thankfully the employees started handing out free bottles of water, and soon Starbucks got in the game by giving out free samples of frappuccinos, to the general cheers of everyone in line.

8AM finally rolls around, and the first group of joyous iPhone purchasers is let into the store.

At about 8:20AM, we see the first group of folks with iPhone 3Gs in tow exiting the store, and I managed to get the attention of the second person to buy an iPhone 3G, named Ethan:

I definitely expected there to be more people in line when I got here. I've been lining up since 5:30PM yesterday. I figured the time would go by fast. They're taking 10-20 people at a time. I'm just going to go home and sleep.

That sleep sounded really nice to me at that point.

10:50AM - I finally got in the store. I took advantage of the MacBooks laying around to type up this very article.

Unfortunately, the line slowed down considerably, and some of the employees told us that the authorisation servers seemed to be down. Activations were taking longer than normal, causing the line to slow to a crawl. (More info at MacRumors.)

After nearly 2 hours of not moving at all with the servers being down, the line finally picked up once again, with store employees now handing out Gatorade to keep the weary customers awake.

At 1:20PM, I'm finally paired up with a service rep named Ben who guides me through the whole process of upgrading my old iPhone to a brand new black 16GB iPhone 3G. I hand over my account information, he verified it on his system, picked out my SMS plan, signed a new contract agreement, and boom! The purchase is complete.

Two minutes later my old iPhone no longer works on the cell network. The new iPhone 3G needs to be hooked up to a computer with iTunes 7.7 to finish the activation process, but all the computers in the store are taken by other customers, so Ben lets me go home to finish the activation process at home.

Unfortunately, the servers are getting so hammered right now that iTunes is giving me connection errors and I'm left without a phone as I wait for the madness to die down.

Hopefully the servers will feel more cooperative in the evening.

Take a look at the picture gallery after the jump for a look at the iPhone 3G launch at The Falls in Miami, and stay tuned for my coverage of the best of the new apps that you can find on the App Store!