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The June 29th launch of Apple’s song-playing, web-browsing, call-making iPhone both met demand and the expectations of the Apple fanbase.

Some people lined up a few days ahead of the iPhone’s launch. Others tried buying more than one and auctioning the extra online for a profit. None of them needed to bother. Apple and its AT&T partners had plenty of phones in stock

Before we can tell you that story, we have to tell you this story.

Way back in January 2007, and yes six months is a long time on the Internet, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at MacWorld. Said Forbes:

Sure, a lot of phones play music, for hundreds of dollars less. But none of them has the Apple je ne sais quoi that was so clear in today’s demo. If the iPhone works nearly as well as it did during Jobs’ keynote, Apple will have a major hit.

Less than a month later, Apple and Cisco sparred over the ‘iPhone’ name and trademark. From ABC News:

Cisco claims Apple’s new device is “deceptively and confusingly similar” to its own line of wireless phones from Cisco’s Linksys division. Cupertino-based Apple says it’s entitled to use the name “iPhone” because its device operates over a cellular network, unlike Cisco’s phones, which use the Internet.

A few months later, we find the iPhone has overcome both Cisco’s trademark push and the frequently-overheated hype started by Jobs, who couldn’t sleep much the night before his January keynote. Now we can tell you about the iPhone’s first week in the media eye.

The iPhone attracted the curious, not to mention the curiosities, to its debut. One self-designated professional line-sitter received plenty of coverage from his vantage point in New York. Added Gizmodo:

You know that guy who’s first in line at the 5th Ave Apple Store? Greg Packer? Turns out he’s no Apple fanboy. No, he’s an obsessive linesitter. He was the first person to see Ground Zero when the viewing platform opened, the first to sign the condolence book at the British consulate when Princess Diana died, and the first in line to greet President George W. Bush after his inauguration. Hell, the guy waited in line for eight hours to meet Brandy. Brandy!

Philadelphia’s mayor John Street spent some time in line for an iPhone. That didn’t go over very well with his constituents, one of whom challenged his priorities, said Fox News:

He left his spot around 11:30 a.m., soon after a 22-year-old man sporting a mohawk asked him, “How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?”

The mayor replied: “I’m doing my job.”

Once 6 pm local time rolled around in the launch cities, people proceeded through the lines and picked up their iPhones. Early reviews of the iPhone by a quartet of highly-placed technology media pundits had already hit the Internet, virtually in lockstep, as noted by Valleywag:

The first four hands-on reviews of Apple’s new wonderphone came out yesterday. The critical consensus? Buy the amazing device, if you can afford it. We gave scores out of ten - in ten categories. The number was determined by the strength of a reviewer’s language. “Beautiful” was worth 10 points; and “pokey” only 2, for instance. All four reviewers were fans, and the doyen of the group, Walt Mossberg, gave the highest total score, 81 across all ten categories, out of a maximum possible of 100. The average score for the iPhone? 76.75, brought down above all by the sluggishness of AT&T’s data network.

The activation process, where customers could go home and activate the iPhone through iTunes instead of waiting at the store, probably helped with the lines. Apple took the money then sent the buyer on his or her way, opening up space for the next customer.

Some people had issues with activation, as the Consumerist blog noted. They also found that the potential for a Nintendo Wii-like grey reselling market never materialized, in noting a Boston Globe report:

Across the nation, people looking to make a quick profit bought one, two, or as many phones as they could by recruiting friends to stand in line with them. Many were the first to get in line, camping overnight outside the stores. But now they are finding that the iPhone is much more like a Harry Potter book than a hard-to-find Nintendo Wii video game machine: a great thing to be one of the first to own, but not high in resale value because supply is not constrained.

Gadget reviewing legend Walt Mossberg had his iPhone for some time before the formal launch. After the masses got their hands on iPhones, Mossberg’s inbox swelled with questions about the device. He commented on some of those emails on All Things Digital:

Q. Since the iPhone battery is sealed in and can’t be easily replaced by the user, what happens when it dies? Will you have to buy a new iPhone?

No, but you will have to send the phone to Apple, or drop it off at an Apple store, to have the battery replaced. The battery is covered during the phone’s one-year warranty period. After that, replacing the battery costs $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, and takes three business days. Details are at apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/.

The most substantial news about the Apple iPhone comes from Wall Street. The night before the iPhone launched, shares of Apple closed at 120.56. A week after the debut, shares opened trading at 133.16 on July 6th.

Posted in Hardware, Opinion |