Where am I in all of this?
Reports from around the country has waiting times in line an average of 3 hours for the new iPhone 4G.
The last time I can remember waiting for in line for was a seat on American Airlines when they canceled my flight, and that was only for 45 minutes.
Anticipation, anticipation
Is makin' me late
Is keepin' me waitin'
- Anticipation by Carly Simon
As a child I was content to wait in line at Disneyland for an hour, tops, before I started to do a slow melt-down followed by collapsing into a puddle of sweat and melted ice cream. And without fail after the ride it was was always "Was that all there is?", a feeling of ennui and a side eye to my parents that said "I'm done. Put me in front of the TV. Thanks".
The Kings and Queens of the Playground
Maybe it stems from childhood, the first to get that "toy", the first one to parade it around the school yard to oohs and ahhs, the one to be lucky enough to be the "one". We are just kids with tax returns. Wouldn't it be easier to just wait a couple of weeks and breeze into the Apple store and pick one up? Or would it be old news when you pull it out finally,just to see that everyone else has already loaded their's up with a thousand apps?
"You go first...."
Early Adapters are equivalent to the Cannon Fodder of old warfare strategies, they go out first to lay the ground for the ones behind them. Early adapters push through the mine fields of lost connections, stalled downloads, mail bugs, erased contact lists and the ones to come up with the first work arounds. They make sure the ground is safe for us to walk on, by allowing themselves to be "blown up" by unfinished coding. But in the end its a fair trade of "first on the block" for dealing with the long lines and pitfalls of buying a half-baked cake for the Apple fanatic.
Where I Am
For me, it's the Droid. I love my Powerbook and iPod, but for me I prefer to spread the love and not to wall myself off in the lovely but walled Garden of Apple. And I hate waiting in lines, it brings back memories of staring at the back of heads and sunburned scalps and the inevitable "is that all there is?"
Image: Ophelia Chong / Its Just Another Mile, I can almost touch it, its so close.
