Steve Jobs suspended his sick leave from Apple to announce the launch date of the iPad2. Wow! He said he wouldn’t miss it. I have to admit, his presence at the event got my attention. I usually wait for the second generation of devices, you know, give them time to work out the kinks, and it looked like it was time for me to take action.

The Launch Date: March 11 at 5 pm.

So at about 2:45 pm, I casually picked up the camera and announced that I was going into Los Gatos to be part of “the line.” I wanted to experience the launch first-hand. My initial task was to park in a spot clearly designated for 3 hours. Sure the launch was only about 2 hours away, but let’s be reasonable. The second detail was to stop in at The Great Bear to get a cup of coffee for the long wait. Even though I typically down coffee within 2 minutes, I planned to pace myself this time around. I then made my way to the end of the line, taking pictures as I walked to document the event.

Three very pleasant apple-ites were just ahead of me in line. Another woman sat cross-legged on the sidewalk, reading a book. A character in a caddy hat strolled up behind me, carrying a tripod stool. He sat down and began punching a number into his iPhone. Someone apparently answered on the other end and he announced his whereabouts, intentions, and generally chit chatted. A couple minutes later he called someone else and repeated the same announcement. After that call ended I heard him mutter to himself, “Let’s see. . . who else can I call?”

I glanced across the street and noticed 2 Seg-ways in the crosswalk. They cruised down the sidewalk past us to the end of the line. Wait. That looked like Steve Wozniak. Yep. Steve Wozniak took his place in line, about 20 people BEHIND me. I would have thought he’d still have enough pull to get an iPad without having to wait like the rest of us regular people. But he quickly became our designated celebrity-in-line, and with the accompanying buzz, we were all glad he was there.

After being in line for about 30 minutes or so, a coffee cart came rolling down the sidewalk. The Great Bear was serving coffee to those in line—courtesy of the Apple Store. 10 minutes later, 2 Apple employees distributed bottled water. After about an hour later, some of the employees tried to get a “wave” going, but no one was really interested.

Then at 5 pm the doors opened and the launch was official. The line lurched and cheers went up from the crowd. Employees came by to announce the purchasing procedure. A few customers would be let in, and then another batch a few minutes later. It was all so reasonable and civilized. My line-mates covered for me and I walked to the end of the hopeful iPad2 owners, just to take a look. The string of people wrapped the block and was into the alley behind the stores around the corner. An independent company had set up a massage chair in the bay of the movie theater for those feeling the stress. Entrepreneurs everywhere. What an experience!

Then a duo of blue-shirted Apple employees approached, stopping to make some sort of announcement. They paused near our little ad-hoc line community and said, “We’re out of the AT&T 3G iPads!” What??? “We still have everything else!” smiled one of the employees. Let’s see . . . I wanted the, the . . . AT&T 3G! What does this mean?

So my wait was over. After 3 hours I was home—empty handed. But not too disappointed. I enjoyed the experience of an Apple launch. Would I do it again? Probably not. But I’m glad I did it once. If I’d come home with an iPad, it would have been a more cheerful ending to an otherwise interesting experience. You might say I would have lived Apple-y ever after.

Posted on March 12, 2011

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