macnn/electronista
05/03/2007, 4:25pm, EDT
Thursday, May 3rdAT&T readying huge iPhone booths soon?
AT&T is in the last stages of preparing demo booths for the iPhone that could dwarf many others, says a well-placed source. The store displays will be far larger than most at three feet wide and a full seven feet tall, guaranteeing that the Apple device will stand out versus many of the smaller and non-exclusive showfloor models. Each booth will also have exceptional power requirements, with a separate power supply instead of drawing on collective power adapters. The change is so great that stores will actually need to partially rewire their stores to accommodate the change, the tipster said.
Retail outlets will also reportedly need to install Ethernet cables to receive the displays, indicating that Apple and AT&T want to display the phone with fully functional networking through a local Wi-Fi spot.
The news also revealed that many stores are in the process of making the necessary changes to accept the booths. This will clear a path for the displays themselves "within the next few weeks," according to the report. It wasn't known, however, whether or not the displays would ship along with actual iPhone demonstration units ahead of the late June launch.
AT&T's retail shops are the only authorized sales points outside of Apple's own physical and online stores. [via Boy Genius Report]
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finally a try before you buy. Most of the time it has been take it or leave it. I think this is another way in which apple is changing the cellphone industry. Keep on pushin' AAPL.
I am REALLY hoping that Cingular/ATT will have a 3G network ready to go by the time the phone is introduced, and the phone will be updated to work with it. I currently have an EDGE phone (so-called 2.5G) that is painfully slow with internet tasks. If the iPhone proves to be equally slow, I won't be buying (and I really want to buy).
The iPhone is trickier. It makes phone calls. Do they really want to allow you to call your friends from the Apple Store? And how long do they let you talk, especially if there is a line to try it out?
Your contacts would not be loaded in the phone by default. That makes it tricky, too. If they disable the phone features, but let you try the rest of the device, you'll feel like the device is crippled. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
In most cell phone stores, the phones are deactivated, for some of the above reasons. I'm sure there are many more So where does iPhone fit?
the Rumor mill says, special iPhone kiosks will require 220 AC power, ethernet, and a seven foot-tall-by-3-foot wide display.
Know what else has special power requirements, an ethernet cable, and would fit in a seven-by-three foot display, ? Something like a gigantic multi-touch display...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVCL7mGO1Pc
Would a giant iPhone solve the the issue of grubby fingers and potential theft? Would people be more likely to accept disabled features on a comically large floor display? And think of the publicity. There would be a two-hour line to try it out. Screw the line to try it, I'll just but one.
Deep down, we know the iPhone's 3.5 inch multi-touch display is a much smaller version of what is coming in the future. Wouldn't it be cool if the kiosks reflected that?
-Ryan Brandys