While none of these people, many of whom are unemployed and paid by others to stay in line for days, will spend the $3,600 someone in China just paid for a "gold" iPhone, they will gladly pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket, or in many cases simply lease with zero money down, the latest and greatest aspirational gadget to show they are cooler than they actually are. Case in point: in front of the main Apple store on 58th and Fifth some 4700 people are unaware you could have ordered the iPhone online and have it delivered today... Crowd at 5th Ave Apple Store w less than 45 min to go. One Apple estimate has 4700 ppl lined up at area stores. pic.twitter.com/4cdv9o9g1l — Ed Baig (@edbaig) https://twitter.com/edbaig/status/512924570337431552!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); The line in Burlington, Ontario And so on.