The anxious dash for the iPhone 5 on the North Coast began in the wee hours Friday morning, when more than 150 hopeful buyers lined up outside the Apple store in downtown Santa Rosa.
The earliest arrival had driven up from San Francisco Thursday morning, since lines had already formed there, and another had driven from Healdsburg late Thursday night. Still others made a trek from Napa, spending a cold night together outside the mall to ensure they wouldn't miss out on their chance to be among the first to own the latest smartphone.
But elsewhere around Sonoma County, waiting times were surprisingly short for those who took a chance and showed up as stores opened. Many got their hands on the coveted new smartphone in a matter of minutes.
The iPhone 5, launched Friday morning, drew thousands of people around the country to stores this morning. The breadth of shoppers and their varied strategies for getting the goods shows how ubiquitous the iPhone has become.
At the Apple store in Santa Rosa, the first eager buyer in line, student Phil Yook, 23, of San Francisco, had arrived Thursday morning expecting hordes of people.
"That's crazy, I know, but I already checked the San Francisco stores," Yook said. "My expectation is higher than ever."
A hairdresser showed up at a Sprint store on Santa Rosa Avenue with a cosmetics pouch filled with cash around 4 a.m. Down the road, a new mother of 8-week-old twin girls arrived at the Verizon store, hoping to buy one for her mother for video chatting. An independent plumber bought one to help run his business, and barely had to wait.
Lines were short at most local stores, in part because veterans of the iPhone line tried different techniques.
"Last year, I showed up at 1 a.m. and it was me and one other guy," said Aaron Reiff, 43, an audio engineer from Sebastopol. "I was expecting some big block party . . . It was a total let-down."
Even so, the night owls were out. A core crew trickled to the Sprint store around 4 a.m., waiting in their cars for warmth. But when 16-year-old Ruben Moore of Santa Rosa ambled to the sidewalk to start a line, the other sleepy souls scrambled to join him.
"I was the one who started it all," said the high school student, who opted to miss a history test in his second period class so he could be part of iPhone history.
Strangers became friends bonding over their early morning die-hard shopping experience.
"We're BFFs," said Angela Sweet, 33, the hairdresser. "We're all in the same boat right now."
At the Verizon store on Santa Rosa Avenue, Korinne O'Neill, 27, got the last black iPhone 5 the store had in stock.
"I drove up last night to see if anyone was camping, but no one was here," O'Neill said.
Some who tried to outsmart the system weren't so lucky. To avoid the long lines, Jack Liao, 29, a manufacturing technician at JDSU, pre-ordered his and his wife's phones from Radio Shack. But by mid-morning only one of their phones had arrived, and the store's computer systems were jammed, so their strategy didn't completely work.
"People are nuts over this," Liao said. "I didn't want to camp out in the cold."
Hairdresser Sweet knows what she plans to do first with her new smartphone.
"I'm gonna cuddle up next to it and sleep like a baby," she said.
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