iFrenzy

People started lining up at the Bridgeport Village Apple Store as early as 4:30 a.m. Friday

By Katie Wilson

The Times, Jul 5, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

Jaime Valdez / The Times

iPARTY — (Above) Apple employee Aaron Meyers chants, “iPhones are here!” as he and other employees rev up the crowd before the doors open and the store begins selling the phones at 6 p.m. Friday.

Does the iPhone live up to the hype?

The people lined up outside the Apple Store in Bridgeport Village in Tigard last Friday seemed to think so.

And now, several days later, they’re convinced.

“I love my iPhone,” said Tigard resident Liz Palmer, in an e-mail, a couple of days after she bought her phone. “I thought for a few days that I would return it, but my son was so much enjoying his that I finally opened it.”

She said the phone was very easy to operate, and she will use it primarily for limited calling. Palmer is a business owner and works with hundreds of clients. She says that she will use her iPhone to keep all their information at her fingertips.

“And when I go and visit them in unfamiliar territory, I can use the map program (on the iPhone) to find them,” she said. “I loaded all my songs onto it already and went for a bike ride, listening to my music, and when a call came through, the music slowly faded and allowed me to answer my phone. How cool is that?”

She thinks the hype surrounding the phone is justified.

“For someone like me who relies on my computer every working day, it will be a time-saver and such a convenience,” she said.

According to Palmer, her son had trouble leaving his workplace because of all the curiosity the phone has generated.

“My son went to [his workplace] after he bought the iPhone … and he was unable to get out of the store because everyone wanted to see it,” she said.

Damon Schrosk, a businessman from Colton, had trouble getting everything started on his iPhone.

“That was a major hassle,” he said. “It took almost 36 hours after starting registration on iTunes.” But it’s still “a nice piece of equipment,” he said.

The frenzy

On Friday a crowd of people braved wind, rain and sun outside the Bridgeport Village Apple Store – others arrived later in the afternoon. All were waiting for the phone that is an iPod that is the Internet that is a phone that is about a hundred other things all rolled up in one small device.

And the best part?

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