Gainesville customers wrapped around the corners of Verizon Wireless early Friday morning, eagerly awaiting to buy one of two new iPhone models released this weekend.
The hype lasted through Sunday, when Gainesville residents Joseph Cesar and his girlfriend, Brenda Banales, browsed the Archer Road store, deciding whether to upgrade to the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
Though the release sales reached more than 9 million, Apple customer service representative Lindsey Straton said they did not surpass last year’s iPhone 5 model sales.
Banales said her biggest iPhone 6 selling point is the company itself — she’s been a loyal Apple customer since purchasing the first iPhone model. Her boyfriend, Cesar, a self-proclaimed loyal Android customer and owner of a Samsung Note 3, considered making the switch.
“What I’m really looking forward to is the interface — being able to have my iTunes and all of that connected,” he said.
“With my Android, I have to purchase songs from Amazon and download them to my SD card,” he said.
But not everyone is ready for the change.
“I believe that they are putting out ideas that have already been thought about,” said Steven Ortega, Android owner and AT&T customer. “They are just promoting it in a better light.”
Both local Verizon and AT&T stores declined to comment.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 9/22/2014 under the headline "iPhone 6, 6 Plus hype draws long lines at Gainesville stores"]
