Monday I bought my wife Kathleen an iPhone 3G. I finally figured out the new iPhone line protocol at Apple Stores, swung by The West 14th Street Apple Store on my way to work, and found the line almost pleasingly short.
If AT&T Mobility hadn’t had some meaningless flag on my account, and I had remembered to pay my bill on time, I would have been in and out of the line in less than 45 minutes. Instead it took me 90 minutes and two phone calls to the Small Business group at AT&T.
I went back to the Apple Store at 5:30pm and walked out about 6:45 with her new iPhone and a new 3G-compatible case. It was waiting in the indoor line and case selection that took the most time.
I got home from work about 9:00, and Kathleen was so happy. We spent the remainder of the evening iSyncing her Treo 650 one last time, and then syncing her iPhone 3G with iTunes. All of her smartphone data made it on to the new iPhone. Her iTunes content took some time to transfer, but it was done fairly quickly.
Some friends asked me what it’s like to have the inferior phone in the house. I’m more than OK with it. With my new gig writing for Inside iPhone, it’s helpful to have access to both iPhone models. I just won’t be carrying the new one most of the time.
Looking at it from a different perspective, Kathleen has been holding the bag for a long time. I got an iPhone when money was tight. I got a MacBook Pro right after I got laid off from my full time job in February.
Kathleen soldiered on with the Treo 650, waiting for the iPhone 3G to come out so she could run ePocrates Rx on it. Epocrates has been the key app on her Treo 650 since she started using it in residency over five years ago.
It’s fun to watch Kathleen learn the nuances of the iPhone now that she has one all to herself. My time will come for an iPhone 3G I’m sure, if I’m good….