While I’ve already talked about this with my friends who are Apple-philes or Mac-heads or DiscIples or whatever the Steve Jobs army calls themselves these days, I truly have to tip my cap in appreciation of yet another brilliant marketing scheme this past week involving their iPhone.

Disclosure – I have stood in line for CD releases but that was back in college.  The main one I remember was the midnight release for Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I & Use Your Illusion II albums.  There really isn’t anything I’d wait in line for now that I can’t get online or wait until the hype dies down.  Even if Axl ever releases Chinese Democracy, I can wait.

Instead of having a midnight or 6 AM release for the iPhone, they decided to begin sales at 6 PM.  Why was this genius?  Think about it – at 6 AM only the people who want to buy this appliance will be at the appointed stores.  Having an early evening release allows for the local news stations to get their stock “people waiting in line” footage for the evening news.  It also allows a full day’s worth of mall foot traffic to expose people who are unaware and might ask why people are standing in line at the Apple Store (i.e. Steve's House of Pretension).  Thanks to John for this link summing up the whole “wait in line” phenomenon.

It’s not worth going into detail here about the current shortcomings of the iPhone (can’t send MMS, ringtone limitations, fat-fingering of the keyboard, non-replaceable battery) because in reality it’s still a damn cool piece of machinery and every phone out there has it's own limitations.  I’m not a member of the Mac Army but I do have to hand it to their design crew for making every product they have look flippin’ sweet.  Would I pay $600 for a phone?  The answer is “Heck NO” but I understand why people would want to.

But I still wouldn’t wait in line for it.  Unless there was a guaranteed “Lick Jessica Biel” booth you could go to right after purchasing the iPhone.