Technology

We're So Over the Lines Outside of the Apple Store

Five iPhones and three iPads in, perhaps we've seen it all. The lines forming outside the Apple store for tomorrow's iPad debut just aren't that exciting anymore. 

By Rebecca Greenfield
This article is from the archive of our partner .

Five iPhones and three iPads in, perhaps we've seen it all. The lines forming outside the Apple store for tomorrow's iPad debut just aren't that exciting anymore. Those hours-long overnight line-ups have become tradition, each gadget debut drawing a group of people who for some reason simply must have an iWhatever before everyone else. It used to be that the lines are crazy and full of crazies. Last time, the people clamoring to get the first batches of iPhones were "weirder than ever" declared The Atlantic Wire's Adam Clark Estes. From what we can tell, this time around things feel a bit tamer. Maybe it has something to do with the "lack of dramatic design change," as analysts speaking with Jessica Vascallero in The Wall Street Journal have guessed. Or maybe the whole thing has just become mundane.

Don't get us wrong, there are still some painful looking-lines outside of Apple stores. Lines that must have the other gadgets envious. But there's really nothing shocking about a long line for an Apple product at this point. The OG iPad had 'em. Even the "unexciting" iPhone 4S, which like the new iPad didn't look too different from its older sibling, drew crowds. As for the latest lines, they don't sound anything like the giant crowd that threw eggs at Apple's storefront during the iPhone 4S launch. This group of people waiting for their new gadgets outside a Singapore store looks pretty peaceful. Even...bored.

We thought that a deeper dive within the lines might reveal some type of crazy. But, no. Not only are the ideas of lines old-hat, but the people in the lines are just quietly waiting, using their other Apple products, as they wait.

Some of them wait in the cold. Still a yawn.

After searching really hard, we did find one kind of freakish specimen, outside of a Japanese retail location. He does look a bit weird, but we've seen this kind of thing before, too. Remember the kid who carved an Apple into his hair? Or the guy dressed up as Steve Jobs? These are the types of things we've come to expect from iFans.

We're so over it all, aren't we? Or maybe this is just Apple Lines 8.0.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.