(Image courtesy of MacRumors)
June 24 has arrived, and despite some early pre-orders arriving in the hands of a few lucky customers, folks are still lining up across the globe for the new iPhone 4.
MacRumors is reporting on the thus-far successful launch of the iPhone 4, which kicked off first in Japan, where over 300 people lined up outside of the flagship store for Softbank, the handset’s Japanese carrier. Softbank quickly sold out of their stock on the iPhone 4 by early afternoon.
Next up were France, Germany and the U.K., followed closely by our U.S. East Coast brothers. Like the Japanese launch, long lines have been reported at many locations, with 9to5Mac claiming that Apple’s Regent Street location in London saw “in excess of 1,000 people in the queue” and MacRumors’ local Apple Store in Richmond, Virginia also reporting that today’s iPhone 4 line is the longest for any iPhone launch yet.
In many locations, lines were split up into two -- one for customers who had pre-ordered or reserved their handset, and another for those hoping to just show up, saunter into the store and claim an iPhone 4 as their very own.
Early Twitter reports claim that at least one Apple Store has already sold out of the iPhone 4 -- The Falls store in Miami, Florida, where “people at a certain point in line” were told to “just go home” about an hour after the doors opened. (Ouch!) Computerworld is also reporting shops across the U.K., France, Germany and Japan have mostly sold out of the handset as well.
Thus far there haven’t been any reports of activation failures through AT&T’s servers, which is a good sign with so many people buying the iPhone 4 all at once.
Other U.S. sightings noted by Computerworld include more than 1,000 people lined up outside of the Apple Store at SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina, as many as 500 people at a location in Knoxville, Tennessee and of course, the ever-present frenzy at Apple’s Fifth Avenue location in New York City when the doors opened at 7am Thursday.
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