iPhone 4: Where to Find an iPhone 4 on June 29

I am one of the unlucky people who has not gotten a new iPhone due to the low supply at Best Buy and sellout at my area Apple Store. So I decided to contact two AT&T stores in my area to get a little info about the iPhone 4 release on June 29th at AT&T.

Of the stores I contacted; one store is a corporate owned and the other is a reseller in the next little town over from where I live. It is not owned by AT&T but does resell their phones and accounts. The good news is that one of these stores will have some iPhone 4 devices in stock — the other, not so much.

No iPhones for Reseller AT&T Stores

If you are planning to show up at a store that is not owned by AT&T itself but resells AT&T phones and service, then you will be out of luck. The owner of our local reseller store said he won’t be getting any new iPhones for quite some time. So don’t bother camping out unless it is an AT&T corporate store.

AT&T Stores Will Have Lines

My other attempt was to find out if my local AT&T corporate store would have iPhone 4s on the 29th. They said they would, but already had customers tell them they would be lining up very early before the store opens at 9:00 am. She said one man told her he’d be bringing his lawn chair and sitting on the sidewalk starting at 3:00 am. I asked if that was just an isolated case and she said with wide eyes, No!” She went on to say many customers claimed they would be there very early waiting in line.

My final question for the two sales ladies was how many they would be getting in stock. She frowned and said, I have no idea!”

Remember Who Their Customers Are

My oldest son was with me on this quest for info. He is more upset than I am about this whole fiasco. He is getting the hand-me-down iPhone 3G that my wife is giving him since she will get my 3GS. He’s been going cold turkey on the texting since he broke his phone a few weeks ago. He started to grumble about how horrible Apple and AT&T are treating their customers asking why they won’t just tell them how many phones they will get so no one has to wait.

I reassured him that AT&T and Apple know exactly who their customers are. And those customers love seeing long lines outside their stores in news reports because the reports increases the perceived value of their purchases. As you can probably tell, those customers are more traditionally called stockholders. My son and I are just part of the machine that helps take care of those customers. And as a person with a retirement account that includes stocks (not AT&T’s or Apple’s), I am sometimes glad when companies remember those customers. As a guy looking for an iPhone, I think it stinks!