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On a rainy day in Miami, I decided to cover the Leopard Launch Event at my local Apple Store. How many souls would brave the rain to stand in line to get a copy of the shiny new Mac OS? Would there be an iPhone level of hysteria surrounding this product? Read on and find out! |
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The Apple Store in The Falls Shopping Center was the first Apple Store to open in Miami. Subsequently, two more stores have opened; one in the City of Aventura and the latest one on Miami Beach. Three Apple Stores? What did Miami do to deserve three stores? For the record, the City of Miami is one of 35 cities that reside in Miami-Dade County. The County itself has twice the area of the State of Rhode Island or about half the size of the State of Connecticut. Needless to say, commuting here is tediously long.
Being the first and oldest Apple Store here, The Falls Apple Store started being rennovated about six weeks ago. The main store was closed and a temporary store (basically a fat hallway 1/3 the size of the original) was opened. This was the venue to host the Leopard Launch Event here at The Falls.
Store management, well aware of their predicament, had a plan. How well this plan would work would remain to be seen. Queue poles and straps were already set up outside and a sign was posted alerting all passersby that the store would be closed today from 4 PM to 6 PM in preparation for the Launch Event.
Even at 2:30 PM there was a brisk level of activity in the store, but there was no one lining up outside. Could a Mac OS launch really bring out the crowds? Would the local Mac faithful brave the inclement weather just to get the new OS X in their hands (plus a spiffy T-Shirt)?
Four PM finally arrived and the Store Manager ushered out the last of the stragglers, thanking them for their patronage and asking them to return for the launch Festivities at 6 PM. At this point, poles and straps were used to seal off the store entrance and black plastic was placed over the glass doors to conceal whatever preparations the staff was involved in. At this point the line began to form outside the store. I took the opportunity to interview some of the folks in line.
The first person in line, Luis (on the right above), was a first-time Mac buyer who had recently sold all of his PC gear to purchase his first Mac. He was planning on buying a MacBook Pro with all the trimmings and had waited till today to get his new Mac with Leopard already installed on it. The second person in line, Nick (the the left of Luis), had already gotten Leopard that morning, having pre-ordered it on the Apple Online Store. He was here to partake in the festivities and see what useful peripherals were available.
In the two hours before the store reopened, the line swelled rapidly as the Mac faithful arrived in droves. The line made two turns as it wound its way through the outdoor shopping mall. Omar had arrived and was waiting to purchase a Family pack of Leopard for all of the Macs in his home. He was interested in the inteface improvements and wanted to be an early adopter. Alexander, a self-proclaimed early adopter and family tech support guy, was here to be the first on his block with the latest and greatest from Apple. Having bought the iPhone when it first came out, Alexander is confident that OS X leopard will not disappoint. The most interesting feature to him is Time Machine. "Backup is something that a lot of users don't bother with because it's just a bit on the complicated side." Dean, an FIU student, also wanted Leopard for Time Machine, stating he wanted a system to help keep his schoolwork safe and help cut down on panic management. J.P. stated he was getting Leopard because he was a Unix junkie and Charles, a Mac developer, was getting his copy to test his applications on. Since he was not an ADC (Apple Developer Community) member, he did not have early access to the Leopard betas.
At 6 PM the entire staff of the store came out a greeted everyone in line. It was very euphoric with high-fives abounding. By my estimates there were almost 250 people in line to get in at opening. Customers were admitted to the store in groups of 25-30 and the entire chaos was well managed by the staff.
Luis, Customer #1, finally did order his MacBook Pro and an Airport Extreme. Nick, Customer #2, bought a part for his Time Machine (an external hard drive).
I stayed for about an hour and 15 minutes after the start of the event and during the whole time the crowding was well managed and the staff were all working very hard to educate and inform their customers as to the new features and abilities in Leopard. When I left people we still queueing up outside to get in! Not bad for a store operating at 1/3 it's size.