September 21, 2012|Gus G. Sentementes
While in line at the Verizon store on Fleet Street, Dhakkiyyah Lee, 26, a restaurant worker from Baltimore, said she was switching from T-Mobile to Verizon Wireless to buy the iPhone. (The iPhone is not available on T-Mobile.) Lee had a Samsung MyTouch, an Android-based phone, but she dropped the phone and cracked the screen, so she was ready for a new one.
She gave up her BlackBerry three years ago, because “it just wasn’t keeping up,” she said. A co-worker convinced Lee to buy the iPhone over the new Samsung Galaxy S3.
“I’m a little excited to see how it works,” she added.
At the Mall in Columbia, the line for the Apple store was hundreds long, with the first person saying he had been waiting since 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Meanwhile, about 30 people lined up outside the Verizon Store on Snowden River Parkway in the brisk hours of early morning, with store manager Joe Janusziewicz pumping up the group in the minutes before the store's opening. Janusziewicz said people had started forming a line to buy the new iPhone “early,” and the fifth person in line said he had arrived at 5 a.m.
“Alright, we are good to go,” Janusziewicz said at 8 a.m., opening the doors.
Patuxent Publishing reporter Sara Toth contributed to this report.
