iPhone 6 line at Syracuse Apple Store
Customers line up for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus outside the Apple Store inside Syracuse's Destiny USA on Thursday, September 18, 2014.
(Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com)
Central New York is already lining up for the new iPhone.
At least 15 customers were waiting outside the Apple Store at Destiny USA around closing time Thursday night. While other stores in the Syracuse mall were shutting their gates, workers started cordoning off a path for the dozens more expected to start arriving overnight and in the early morning.
The Apple Store, wireless carriers and various retailers are expected to open at 8 a.m. Friday to begin selling the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6 Plus. Apple announced the two new smartphones at a special event in Cupertino, California, last week.
The iPhone 6 boasts a 4.7-inch display, while the iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5. inches, a full 1.5 inches bigger than last year's iPhone 5S. Both iPhones feature a faster A8 processor, redesigned horizontal displays, an improved 8MP iSight camera with optical image stabilization, and an M8 motion coprocessor, which measures exercise activities and can be integrated with the heart monitor on the new Apple Watch.
The first person in line arrived around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. That's roughly four hours earlier than the first person for the iPhone 5S in 2013, which isn't surprising considering Apple said demand is high after breaking its previous record with more than 4 million orders for the next-generation iPhones.
Most customers declined to be interviewed, instead preparing themselves for the long wait overnight. Some brought chairs and snacks, while others kept themselves awake by using their soon-to-be-old smartphones.
The tenth person in line said he got there around 9:15 p.m. after driving up from Cornell University, where he's a student studying abroad from China. But he's not braving an all-nighter for himself or a profit -- he's doing it for his girlfriend.
James, who didn't give his last name to keep his plans a surprise, said he's getting an iPhone 6 Plus 64 GB model in gold for her birthday, which they'll celebrate soon when she visits him from their hometown in Shanghai. The iPhone 6 Plus is currently on back-order, delayed in shipping as much as a month.
James said the iPhone 6 Plus, a full 2 inches larger than his girlfriend's current iPhone 4S, seems to be more popular because other smartphone models like the Samsung Galaxy S5 have followed the trend of "phablet" sizes between a normal phone and a tablet.
As of 9:30 p.m., there were no crowds outside Best Buy or most other stores where in-store only iPhone 6 models are expected to be scarcer than at the Apple Store.
However, two people were waiting outside the AT&T store by 10 p.m.: Mary Fishlock and her husband. Fishlock said mall security at first told them they couldn't stay inside all night, but a rep for Destiny USA said they're making an exception for people who are buying an iPhone in the morning.
"Due to the increasing demand of the new iPhones each year, we are allowing customers to wait in line overnight outside the Apple Store for this launch on Friday," Krista Tysco, Destiny USA's PR and social media coordinator, said. "We can't wait to see the new iPhone and the excitement it creates!"
UPDATE: The stores are now open for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. More than 300 people were in line by 8 a.m. inside Destiny USA.