iPhrenzy: Doors Open for the iPhone 3G!

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

It's go time for the iPhone 3G, Apple's next-generation mobile device that may or may not cure scurvy, the common cold, and ennui. All day, Racked's chronicling the thrill of victory at Apple and AT&T stores across New York. And... boom.

The morning dawns bright and forward-looking across Manhattan, and at the city's three temples of titanium, the Apple stores, Racked correspondends lurk. Their reports:

Apple Meatpacking
Time: 8:00AM
Head Count: Several bays of people in front of the store, plus a long line west down 14th street (above). Let's call it 400 or so folks.
Color: It's a relatively mellow scene, by the opening standard of this store, anyway, as the doors are open and the first group of 60 eager-to-first-adopt folks are let in. The crowd outside? Calm, expectant, possibly stoned. In the peanut gallery, we've got a ragtag crew including CNBC (desperately waiting for the first in to be the first out, for the requisite interview); Vitamin Water (push that cart, boys); and, natch, those Red Bull cars with cans the size of bazookas on top.

Apple Fifth Avenue
Time: 8:00 AM
Head Count: 600
Color: Says our operative on the scene, "And the doors open to the ritual scene of Apple staffers in orange t-shirts applauding those in line. They're sending people in in groups, and the line's now moving slowly. An eerie sense of calm, actually. I'm walking down the line and it goes even further than I thought."

Apple Soho
Time: 8:07 AM
Head Count: Smaller than expected: 150 folks or so
Color: Sayeth our man on the scene, "First 46 people in" as the zero hour strikes. Another 25 or so head on in soon after. Wait, is there a Paul Smith sale going on up the street?