AT&T are playing games with their iPhone inventory...

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/travel...hone-3g-stock/

Stores will claim they are out of them, even though they have more "in the back". Apparently they'll sell an X amount every day, then switch to online orders. Then the next day they'll suddenly have more...

Just called my local store.

They had "a bunch" this morning, but have no more.

He said they're not getting any more for 30 days. :confused:

But that if I wanted to "direct order" (whatever that means), I could have it in 7 days.

My guess is that they are BS'ing you like they did with me. I'll bet they have more tomorrow again. They just want to lock you into ordering now, so they can get the credit.

It's funny how you can not order an iPhone online yourself, but you can order it online in the store and have it shipped to them.

I thought the same thing, exactly.

I'm dropping by my store (the only one within 2 1/2 hours of me) tomorrow around 11am. We'll see. May try a riff on your tactic that I want to upgrade three lines and add a data plan/AirCard line.

Update:
I was up live at 1:50pm. Syncd, mailed, etc... I'm even sporting native Japanese read/write ability on a phone out of the box. And one that will travel with me to Japan. And Work!

Except for the delay in activation it's great. Blows away my hacked (for Japanese readability) Treo 750.

The only thing I need to deal with is the keyboard:eek:

Wow.

I had to swing by my local apple store to pick up my repaired Macbook, and at 8pm about 75 people were waiting in a neat line outside the store, and about ten inside. (two security guards at the front of the store, and I was asked to show my repair order before I was allowed in!) The staff said they had a steady stream all day, and were going to stay open until 11pm this evening....something that hadn't been advertised, as far as i can tell. It looked like they had plenty of phones.....

OMG.

I've become a fanboi. :eek:

I called the local Apple store and they quoted a one to one and a half hour wait. So, I hopped in the car and drove over. 20 minutes of sunk cost later it was clear I was in for a longer haul. 2.5 hours later I was admitted to the sanctum.

One hour later I walked out with an activated iPhone 3G.

Awesome technology. :cool:

My plan all along was to get a phone on Saturday, however I had a bit of free time at the end of the day, so I drove up to the Apple Store to see what they had. I was in and out of the store within an hour. Most of that time was spent BS'ing with many of the employees I know who work there and looking for a case.

Total time in line: 15 minutes
Total time in store: 40 minutes
Total activation time: <1 minute

I got it home and I haven't put it down much since. It is quite possibly one of the coolest pieces of technology I have. I admit, though, that this is my first "smart phone."

Went to the AT&T store nearby about 11 this morning. Walked in, got it, out in about 10 minutes. I hear there is a line of about 40 minutes at the Apple store.

Walked past the Sydney flagship store and Telstra's (one of the operators) flagshop store, which is directly opposite the Apple store yesterday. The Apple store has a queue of about 80 people, the Telstra store has a queue of around 20 people... That's more than 24 hours after launch...!

AT&T stores here are (once again) out of them. Most Apple stores have a 4 hour wait! :D

Somewhere in Cupertino there is a locked room full of people cheering and counting their money.

Which store did you go to? Palo Alto is the closest for me. I'd just as soon wait a while before I upgrade (I held out until November last year) but I do want to play with it.

I went to the Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara.

Did anyone get a SIM ejector tool? There does not seem to be one in my box.