Modest lines and "far less drama" for iPhone 3G S launch

Yes, there were plenty of eager Apple fanatics who got up early—way early—and lined up to be among the first with their very own iPhone 3G S, but nothing like last year's mayhem.

CNET trudged out to the iconic Apple Cube on Fifth Avenue at the wee hour of 4 a.m., and found a grand total of … 20-odd people, "almost exclusively young and male." The crowd grew to a couple hundred by 6:30-ish, but it was "still far from a madhouse."

The scene was even quieter at the Stonestown Mall Apple Store in San Francisco, where Technologizer's Harry McCracken arrived early—think 3:15 a.m. local time—and discovered a "a velvet rope and nothing else." At least he had some company (as in, a handful of other early risers) a few minutes later.

Engadget, meanwhile, has a snapshot of the puny line at the Regent Street Apple flagship in London.

Still, the excitement appeared to rev up a bit once the Fifth Avenue store opened its doors at 7 a.m. sharp, with a "relatively orderly and civilized" crowd of 300 or so greeted by "steadily clapping" Apple employees, according to Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog. The first customer—activated iPhone 3G S in hand—emerged about 15 minutes later, the blog reports.

So, what happened? Is the iPhone 3G S launch a bust? Well, I wouldn't go that far.

On the one hand, there's little question that the improvements in the new iPhone are far more subtle (better camera, more storage, digital compass, voice control) than in the iPhone 3G (GPS, and of course speedy 3G data access). I'm guessing that many iPhone 3G owners are happy to keep what they've got for now (especially given all the new features in the iPhone Software 3.0 upgrade), or at least wait until they qualify for a discount from AT&T.

But there's another huge factor at work here: online iPhone pre-orders, which were available this year for the first time.

I'm guessing that many of the Apple faithful who normally would have waited in line are, instead, waiting at home for FedEx to arrive. Hey—I'm one of them. (As I type, my 32GB iPhone 3G S is in Brooklyn and "out for delivery," according to the FedEx tracking site.)

The pre-orders also "defused the drama" by smoothing out the iPhone activation process, as the AP notes. That's in stark contrast to last year, when Apple's servers suffered a meltdown during the iPhone 3G launch. Update: Uh-oh ... AppleInsider is now reporting that Apple's activation servers might, indeed, be showing signs of strain. Did I speak too soon?

In any case, we'll probably have to wait until early next week to find out how just how big—or middling—the 2009 iPhone launch turned out to be. Update: Chatter on MacRumors has it that the iPhone 3G S launch might actually be bigger than last year; again, however, it'll probably be a few days before we get concrete numbers.

Show of hands: Did you wait in line for an iPhone 3G S? Did you pre-order online? Keeping your 3G/original iPhone? Got a Pre instead?