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Omaha's Apple Store at Village Pointe had a line of eager customers well before midnight, camping out to be among the first to get their hands on an iPhone 5.
The store is opening at 8 a.m. for iPhone customers, in advance of their usual 10 a.m. opening for everybody else.
Nebraska Furniture Mart's Manager of Appliances and Electronics, Paul Boldt, said, "Any time Apple comes out with a new product, there seems to be a surge of activity through the store and it's an exciting time." He expects a big crowd when their doors open at 10 a.m., particularly since he said Apple's got a limited initial release of the iPhone 5.
Boldt said their customer service counter is busy accepting older technology for recycling. Those bringing in iPhone 4's in good condition can receive a $150 credit toward a new purchase, which would cover more than half of the cost of the iPhone 5.
Some 2 million iPhone's have already sold online, twice the pace at which the iPhone 4 sold when it was released.
One NFM customer, Bill Morehouse, understands the excitement, but he says he's more of a Droid fan than an Apple fan. "You have more of a community effort or global community taking care of the product instead of just one set of developers."
Morehouse isn't alone. Apple's biggest competitor, Samsung, came out with their Galaxy S3 a few weeks ago. "It's one of our hottest sellers," Boldt said. He's interested to see which one will fair better.
Another customer, Jill Wood, loves iPhones over Droid, for their "user-friendly" features. Still, she said, she doesn't plan on upgrading from her iPhone 4 just yet. "A bigger screen just isn't enough for us," she said. Some other technological improvements, however, include 4G, speed boost and slimmer design.
