You Will Never See iPhone Lines The Same After Watching This Unsettling Video On New York City's iPhone Lines
On Friday, we, like many others published photos of thousands of people standing in line to buy the new iPhone, the iPhone 6.
Most people think of these lines as being filled with crazed fanboys who just can't wait to get their hands on the latest product from Apple. However, filmmaker Casey Neistat (via Re/code) created a 6-minute video that shows there is a dark, disturbing side to these lines.
The lines are not just filled with crazed fanboys. Neistat shows that the lines are filled with Chinese people waiting for days to buy an iPhone 6, only to flip it as soon as they leave the store. On YouTube, he says, "this entire experience was disheartening."
We have the full video below, here's a quick run down of what you'll see:
This was the first person in line for the iPhone 6 at the SoHo store:
She's not what you think of when you think of the kind of person that waits for an iPhone. But, maybe she should be:
The guy in the front said he was waiting for two days.
In the evening, the lines get even more depressing. There are people sleeping in garbage bags:
The cops patrol the streets, telling people they can't sleep. This cop was harassing people, saying, "You people ever heard of soap? You f---ing stink."
And then, for reasons unknown, there was screaming, and police were cuffing this woman.
When the long wait was over, people got into the Apple store and bought two iPhones, with cash:
And as soon as they leave the store, they find someone willing to buy their phones:
In all, it's not a pretty picture for Apple. These lines look like great marketing, but up close they're depressing. People are waiting in line for days just to make a quick buck flipping new phones.
(It's also interesting to think about what this means for Apple in terms of opening weekend sales. Is this really a great way to gauge demand? As Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes put it: "We caution investors that first weekend sales for iPhones is a meaningless figure since it really only represents Apple's supply.")
Here's the whole video, which you really should watch: