A view from Delaware
Whilst haveing a few hours to kill before my flight back to Blighty, I visited a shopping mall in Delaware.
Note that this was at 14:00 on a Friday afternoon.
For those who don't know it, Delaware, apart from being 'The First State' also has 0% Sales Tax so people from all around head there to buy stuff. The mall I visited is just off I-95 and contains both an Apple Store and just a few yards away, a Microsoft Store.
The first thing I noticed that there was a line of people outside the AT&T stores. I asked and they were waiting for an iPhone 6+. Apparently the store had a delivery and ... well you know the rest. There were about 20 people in the queue.
Then I walked past the Microsoft store. Here was a depressing sight. there were about 8 staff and THREE customers.
Finally, the apple store. It was heaving with people/ It looked like about 60/40 customers to Apple Staff but there were a lot of them. I lost count at 40. Many customers were observed leaving with little white boxes (probably containing iPhones) in white Apple drawstring bags.
These people cannot by any description be called Fanbois. A total mix of people if my observatioms were anything to go by.
The previous day I was in downtown Harrisburg PA. Lots of Phablets in view. The current bling device amongst the locals was BIG and I mean really BIG phones. 6in just didn't cut it for this lot. 9in was common. I have no idea who makes them but to be honest the users looked like they wouldn't take kindle to being asked about their body extension (If you know what I mean...innit). They also had lots of custom cases with loads of Bling. Vertu eat your heart out...
As I say, this was just some observations of phones on the west side of the pond. It may well be different in other places over here but I can only report what I saw.
Like or Loathe Apple, they must be doing something right. The sell shed loads of kit and it isn't all going to fanboi hipsters. There can't be that many in the world (or can there)
There is a huge iPhone 6 billboard strategically placed as you come out of the Mid-town tunnel into manhatten ($7.50 toll).
On a side note, my Three one month rolling contract for $16 and no US Roaming charges attracted a lot of attention from the people I was with last week. some Samsung S5 contracts here work out at $50 a month and only 1GB of data.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
