Ahh, it seems so long ago when my son and I waited in line to fork over more than $600 each to buy an iPhone. The image above is from the front page of the San Jose Mercury News (I was cheering to many thousands of people who were waiting to get into the store to buy their iPhones and who had waited for up to 38 hours to do so — my son and I were first in line, which was a lot of fun).
I will do it again for WHATEVER Steve Jobs introduces on Wednesday.
Yes, I am a fanboi.
But for why, you need to go back to the experience I had waiting in line.
Unlike the media spectacle on Wednesday, waiting in line is not a controlled PR event. It is a PR event, for sure, but not a controlled one.
I have never participated in an event before or since than that one.
Tonight I looked back at photos and reports that Thomas Hawk shared and I want to take you back to 2007.
What made it magical?
1. It was a shared experience. Everyone was welcome, from kids to old geeks. From rich to poor (we shared the event with homeless as well as famous venture capitalists and CEOs from companies like Smugmug and teams from many companies like Quicken).
2. No PR control. Katie Cotton wasn’t there and couldn’t control what we reported, when we pulled out cameras, or how unruly things could get.
3. At the end we got to walk into the store and get something that did, indeed, end up changing the industry.
4. It was better than any FooCamp or BarCamp or WhereCamp or whatever. Why? Because we didn’t need an invite and we could talk with Apple’s first software developer, Bill Atkinson, all night long. I bet we’ll never be able to repeat that, and THAT is an even better story to tell my grandchildren than to say I sat at an Apple keynote.
It might sound pretty damn stupid to say I will be waiting in line again, especially since this time I won’t have seen the device or the software or the accessories that are surrounding it.
But I can already tell you that I will wait in line again.
Why?
My brother in law worked at Apple on the iPhone for several years. He kept telling me about a tablet device that Steve Jobs was personally working on.
Since then other Apple execs (both current and former) have told me that something is coming that I’ll definitely want to have.
Now, you might be cynical. But, these people have delivered before and I’m pretty sure they will deliver again.
One thing about Apple: if they don’t have the goods, their PR people will wave you off of the event. I’ve seen past events where this has happened. The hype the past three months for whatever Steve Jobs is announcing on Wednesday is extraordinary but there haven’t been any waveoffs. In fact the hype is intensifying.
Even if this device goes on to be a market failure like the Cube or the Newton or Apple TV I will want to own one, if even for a few weeks so I can try it before selling it on eBay.
Add these two things together and, yes, I will be in line again.
Thomas Hawk, you in?
Don McAskill, you in?
Bill Atkinson, you in?
Plus, this time I bet we get Techcrunch to sponsor the party instead of just covering it.
