If you put off buying an iPhone 3G on the day Apple released the new device, you managed to avoid many of the activation woes that plagued early adopters on Friday. That’s the good news. The bad news? You may still have to deal with crowds, even two days after the iPhone 3G made its review.
We’re getting anecdotal reports that Apple Stores still have lines of would-be iPhone shoppers over the weekend (though nothing like the block-long queues you would have seen on Friday). Senior news editor Jonathan Seff spotted 25 to 30 people lined up outside the Chestnut Street Apple Store in San Francisco at around 1:15 on Sunday afternoon. And senior web producer Curt Poff was all set to head to the Bay Street store in Emeryville on Saturday to pick up his iPhone 3G, but was scared off by the still formidable size of the crowd.
What about AT&T stores? Well, you may be out of luck there. Bloomberg reports that the stores of Apple’s iPhone partner “have mostly emptied out of inventory” of the new phones. There’s no definitive word on how long it will take AT&T’s outlets to restock their supplies.
So if you want to get your hands on an iPhone in the next few days, your best bet remains an Apple Store. Apple updates the status of iPhone availability on each individual store’s Web page at 9 p.m. each night—you can find a complete list Apple Store locations on Apple’s Web site.