Stephen Lam/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Across the country people are lining up with the hope of getting their hands on Apple’s latest generation of iPhone.
The phones, which were announced last week, go on sale Friday morning for the first time and come in two versions: the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Reviews have been mixed for the device that was announced Sept. 7, and is the youngest in a nine-year lineage of popular smartphones released by Apple.
The New York Times noted the phone’s impressive water resistance, while noting its speed and saying that both models’ cameras “produce superb, vivid photos.”
Time magazine said that, “It doesn’t ‘wow’ like so many Apple products have,” while Wired said that it “won’t blow your mind with its design or features,” but that it’s “still a fantastic phone.”
Perhaps most controversially, this generation of iPhones is the first to not have a headphone jack. Instead, the company is pushing wireless headphones as its preferred method of listening to audio of the smartphones. Wired headphones are available, which connect to the phone’s proprietary Lightning port.
The company said on Thursday that it had already sold out of all iPhone 7 Plus models through pre-orders, as well as iPhone 7 models in the new “jet black” finish.
Despite that, by Thursday night, lines had formed at Apple’s retail locations across the country hours and — in some cases — days ahead of the phone’s release.
At Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship in New York City, dozens of people sat in fold-out chairs outside the store, with one man claiming to have been there since Aug. 25.
Jaime González, a truck driver from the city who occupied the first spot in line, said he had been in line for three weeks — even before the phones were officially announced, when speculation was running rampant that Apple would release new phones.
González said that he was hoping to purchase two phones, one of which he hoped to sell for anywhere between $1,500 and $2,000. (The model he planned to purchase retails for $849.)
A few yards down from González, Ayman Khalifa, was a long way from home.
The flight attendant from Cairo, Egypt, had been standing in line for just a few hours, but said he was disappointed that the “Plus” models were sold out.
Similar lines had formed in other cities, including San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City, Missouri.
The new hardware comes two days after Apple released the newest version of its iOS operating system for iPhones.
The new software had a reportedly flakey rollout (apparently resolved), and on Thursday T-Mobile was telling its customers who use the iPhone 5SE, 6 and 6 Plus models to hold off on updating to the new operating system after a software glitch was creating connectivity problems.
The carrier said that a fix would be available from Apple within 48 hours.
A spokesperson for Verizon said that the issue did not affect their customers. An email to AT&T asking if its customers were affected was not returned.
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