Apple fans be crazy. But let’s face it, worshippers to the throne of Steve Jobs have had a pretty panic-inudcing week. The new iPhone was launched on Friday (in ~COLOURS!~~) and a new ios7 updated boiled iPhone wielding fans into pits of despair, indifference, and terror. It’s hard being privileged, sometimes.
But one particularly fascinating aspect of the devoting-one’s-life-to-Apple hobby is the launch day. While GTA V fans may queue outside stores at midnight and be offered cocaine wizz fizz as perks, Apple fans don their game faces when it comes to launch days and mean srs business. In Sydney last year, while walking past the Apple store the night before the iPhone 5 launch, I was privy to a tirade of dudes driving slowly past the store (which had banked up countless losers in sleeping bags ready for the next morning) bellowing out, “ANNNDDDDDRRRRROIIIIIIIDDDD” over and over. The punters in line were visibly exasperated; their faces spelt “crushed”. Welcome to the insane world of the 21st century.
Documenting the launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c, filmmaker Casey Neistat visited various Apple stores in Manhattan the night before the launch. What we see is a curious breed of people who often flounder when bluntly asked why they had given up so many hours to line up for a new phone. Neistat captioned his documentary by saying that, while he had similarly lined up for hours to get his hands on the first iphone (and the sega dreamcast), the launch on Friday contained a different kind of energy: “when i went out for the 5S launch i found a lot of that excitement and enthusiasm but i also found a lot of tired anxious people who were waiting in line for reasons other than their own desire for a product. that was a little bothersome. the scene at the apple store just before the phones release was also a sight i’d never experienced. beyond excitement it was closer to hysteria.”
Watch the fascinating documentary below to see the kind of people who wait for literally two weeks to buy a phone, and witness the palpable energy the Apple employees rile up as cheers erupt at the opening of the doors.
Via Gawker.
Title image by Stand Honda via Getty.
