iPhone T-12 days

AP reports that the iPhone is going on sale at 6pm local time on Friday June 29. So when the weekend starts, people can line up and create a commotion that ends up on the TV news. (Most US stations have local news at 5pm, so people will be in line for the “live remote” shot in the 50 or so major markets).

AP also confirms that the phone will be sold by its 1,800 (formerly Cingular) retail stores, in addition to the Apple’s 162 U.S. retail stores. I always thought this was clear, but at least one person thought Apple had shut AT&T out of the distribution chain.

What I’m curious to know is how many AT&T store visitors walk out with an iPhone? All the hardcore Mac people will go to the Apple store, and Apple will make sure to get them on the waiting list. But the Cingular stores are mainly interested in using the iPhone to generate traffic to sign up new subscribers, so if the iPhone is out of stock (or too expensive) they’ll switch them to whatever other phone it takes to close the sale.

Finally, when will Verizon begin its counter-promotion? It says it’s going to envelop the iPhone with a range of multimedia phones, so when does it think it can cut through the iPhone hype to get noticed?

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