Opinion: Call me

Well, that was the plan, but we slept through the alarm – heck, it's winter you know and it's cold out there! We managed to get out the door by midday which was okay as it turned out, because there were still plenty of people queuing outside the phone shops.

So we marched up to the front of the queue and immediately got howled at by the rest of the crowd. After explaining that we weren't queue jumping, we waved our reporter's ID card but we then got howled at for being a journalist.

After the fanbois settled down, we finally got to ask the dude who was almost at the shop counter why he'd queued instead of waiting until tomorrow. Or next week. "Dude are you for real?" came the response. "The pope is actually here in Sydney and you ask me why I'm desperate to get a Jesus Phone?"

We tried to point out that the iPhone has nothing to do with the famous sandal-wearing miracle-performing prophet but this time we got howled right out of the store. Okay, fine, but we still needed a few more comments for our story, so we settled for asking people who were queued outside the shop.

"iPhone? What's an iPhone?" said the first person we asked. "You mean this isn't the queue for the 360 bus to Randwick? Pfft! I'm outta here!" He left and so did another ten punters, as the 360 bus appeared.

The next person we asked was indeed planning to buy an iPhone. Success! But why did he want one? "I've heard the iPhone does video calls! Just like on Star Trek! So I can't wait to try one out. Do you think Mr Spock will take my call?"

Uhuh. Are there any girls in the queue or only boys? Ah, there's one now. Excuse me, can you tell me why you're queuing for an iPhone? "I'm not." Well you're in this queue. "It's not for me." Yes, but you are in the queue. "No, I'm not, I'm just a proxy. Here comes my boyfriend now, so I'm gone!"

Right then, is there anyone here in this queue who is waiting to get their hands on an iPhone? You sir? "Yeah! Just look at what it can do!" He proudly showed me his iPhone. Indeed it is truly wonderful, what a great phone, that's amaz……huh? But you've already got one? Why are you in the queue?

"Yeah! I was here at midnight! But when I got home my brother said he wanted one too, so I came back!" You do realise they are on sale forever now, not just today? "Wow! Really! You mean I can come back here at midnight again?"

Oh puhleese. It's a freakin' phone. And it's lunch time. Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life around here.

mobility