Arden Faire Mall is just up the street from our office so, Friday after work, Dawn and I dropped by the Apple Store to see how the scheduled 6 PM official release of the iPhone was progressing. Sure enough, the “eagers” were gathered en masse, some having claimed their spaces in line the day before. The line stretched as far as I could see, well beyond Macy’s and, as the bewitching hour approached, I thought I’d capture a couple of photos. Enter the white-polo-shirted Apple rent-a-security-guy.

As I raised Dawn’s new pocket Canon to snap a photo of the front outside window of the store, I was accosted by the a.r.s.g telling me I couldn’t take any photos before 6PM. I politely reminded him that I was in a public place, the mall for crissake, and that neither he nor Apple could prevent me from taking pictures outside the store. Wrong thing to say to a rent-a-security-guy, I guess. He said that while that might be true, he would simply block my shot. I called him an ass and pointed my camera at the crowd. Once he became bored and moved on, we took our window shot.

The mall manager witnessed the scene and came over to profusely apologize and to assure me that I could take pictures anywhere in the mall, that it was Apple causing the problem. He gave me his business card and I thanked him for his concern.

Following a countdown that rivaled a space shuttle launch, with Channel 3 capturing the event for their news broadcast, the doors opened and Apple employees began metering the number of fans entering the store. I chatted with one happy buyer, Josh, who told me that he’d been in line 18 hours (since midnight) to get his iPhone. He was number 16 in line.

Now, I fully expected eBay to be inundated with marked up iPhones almost immediately. It was. About the only thing that would have had me standing in line for more than, say, an hour would have been the prospect of a huge payoff. And since Apple wisely limited iPhone sales to two per customer, the potential for a really big eBay killing, at least for me, wasn’t there.

Dawn and I were at the mall the following day and stopped by the Apple Store in the hopes of perhaps seeing - and handling - the new uber gadget. The store was crowded but we quickly sidled up to a pair of iPhones and fiddled to our hearts’ content. I’m not so good with crowds (crowdophobic?) so I went outside and struck up a conversation with a guy who’d been in Friday’s line for 12 hours and had returned to buy some accessories (an adapter so he could use alternative earphones - Apple uses a non-standard plug on their earpods - and an acrylic case.) While we chatted, Dawn emerged from the store, a new iPhone in hand! Seems she liked what she saw and, since they still had them in stock, bought one! She amazes me!

Fanboy issues aside, this single device, along with the campaign behind its launch, has again opened my eyes to what can be accomplished with an amazingly intuitive user interface and a terrific marketing plan. Beginning with the bag, the packaging detail is a work of art. And coupled with the intuitive interface and the clever ad campaign, there is absolutely no learning curve. When you pick it up, you can use it. I suspect one of these will join the Cube at the NY MOMA.

Of course, we still have to activate it and I understand there may be some issues doing so. And I’ll, of course, have to upgrade my aging Mac (Damn!) to synch with it…