Trip to the Apple Store…

I had a chance to go to the Apple Store at the Mall of America today (thanks again Jen for loaning me your car, it was a blast).  Tony and I got to the store and found a parking space right at the front entrance by the store.  This alone is a minor miracle for a Saturday morning at the MOA.  We stroll into the store and find a guard at the entrance of the store mirrored to a happy faced Apple employee and what appears to be about half the city of Bloomington – the store was packed!  We wandered around a little bit and finally managed to get our hands on an actual 3G iPhone. 

First impressions are that the revision is a nice change, but again, not enough for me to get one.  However, I would suggest this this version to anyone who does not currently have an iPhone and is looking to get one.  The unit felt nice in your hand (as good as a demo unit tethered to the desk can) and actually felt a little lighter than my current iPhone.  The most notable difference was the number of bars my phone had compared to the 3G iPhone (3 on mine/5 on 3G). 

The next thing Tony and I noticed was just about everyone in the store was there only for an iPhone.  I bet I saw one computer being sold for every 10-12 iPhones.  The line for activation was 4 rows wide and about 10-12 deep in the store.  This didn’t count for the 30+ people we saw waiting outside the store as an overflow.  Apple may have struggled again with the roll out, but they still hit a grand slam when it comes to actually getting gadgets out the door and into the consumers hands. 

UPDATE: The pic above shows the availability of 3G iPhones for the state of MN.  It sure looks like Minnesota loves the iPhone.