Wireless carriers like AT&T, and Apple stores, all experienced lines because customers wanted to be among the first to have an iPhone 4S. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack, was among the Apple faithful, lining up outside the Apple store in Los Gatos Thursday night so he could be the first person to get his new phone at 8 a.m. Friday.
After waiting for 20 hours. The Woz emerged a happy camper.
"No matter whether the phone works or not, as long as I got one, it's worth camping out," Wozniak said.
Buyers paid $199 for the base model and $399 for one with 64 gigabytes of storage. The new, white 4S was beating out black, especially among women.
At the AT&T Wireless store in San Jose, Roberta Keen was buying her third iPhone Friday for herself and two daughters.
"So I did two across town and got in my car and stood in line over here and got the third," Keen said.
Siri is the feature everyone's anxious to try. It's a voice recognition personal assistant that answers questions and does your bidding. Siri also has a sense of humor, giving cheeky replies when asked questions about love or the existence of other cellphones.
Siri may not be capable of love, but its new owners say they're smitten with the 4S. Some customers even dressed in black turtlenecks, jeans and sneakers, the familiar outfit of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Although Jobs died last week, people still speak of him in present tense.
"Steve's an inspiration to me; he's a fantastic leader in the industry, a great innovator, and I just want to help remember him," San Jose resident Mike Jones said.
The 4S is being considered a legacy model because it was the last one Jobs worked on.
