What if you can presign up and get your SIM from the store, and then pickup your iPhone from the actual Apple Store or reseller... Phone is "bricked" until SIM is put in and account finalised with telco.

while that may technically work...

I can only point you to the Apple Store website....
it would appear that the carriers will be purchasing the iphone from apple to stock and sell in their stores.

it is quite obvious that Apple have discarded the wonderful 1st generation sign up process (even in america) they are going back to a more traditional phone-carrier relationship...

Which does make the phone somewhat cheaper, but such a relationship really isn't well suited to a product that has enough demand on day one to result in queues.

Anyone noticed that the American "Where To Buy" webpage - has Apple Retail Store AND AT&T...
yet our Australian (and other international pages with an Apple Store) only lists the telcos?!?!?!?

Not sure if that means anything or not.

Many people have mentioned that the iPhone is indeed not being offered at the Apple Store on George St at the moment. Silly part on their behalf I think. It would be a great opportunity to capitalise on a new store and to welcome new Apple users.

I also find it very odd that the Apple Store won't have this Apple product (the best Apple product in years). But surely, if they were planning on having it at the store, they would have said something by now?

Thats what I thought. Being a brand new store and the only one in Australia, it would be the best place to sell them...
Agreed, they would have mentioned it by now if they were planning on it. Maybe they will realise it down the track and make them available?

It's because they don't have the resources or know-how to sign people up for contracts etc. The fact we have three carriers massively complicate things.

It's a real pity the Apple store in Sydney won't be part of the device launch. I realise there are and will be technical difficulties ... until they train the Apple staff on contracts etc which they may not do.

I would have come down for the queue there.

Just thought, they should have organised with Telstra & Optus to setup a little (tiny) area/kiosk thingy on one floor. Then the carriers can have 2-3 staff each. Allowing for customers to sit down and sign up.

Then again, whens the ideal time to pull the plug on that sort of thing. After 2 weeks or so.

Once everyone has the iPhone and no one is going to the kiosk anymore.

OK someone mentioned a few pages back that a policeman mentioned that police presence had been requested on the 11th - I heard this too (re: officer rank and reliability of info - there was an inspector there - and it is from him that I heard this info. An inspector in NSW police is in charge of local area command, so he isn't just a lowly constable/foot soldier).
I was #38 or whatever in the apple store line and throughout the day we were talking to the Apple staff. One of them said something along the lines of 'I wonder if the line will be bigger for the iphone launch'. I jumped on this and said 'oh! so you will be selling the iPhone here??!!". He then said 'oh but we don't know if we will be selling it yet - we don't know anything 'til the last minute'.
Having worked for a reseller in a past life, I can verify that info isn't released until the very last minute. They find out when everyone else does. I have heard that this is much the same in Apple stores overseas. I just thought it was interesting that he mentioned it.

Again with the salt...

While there are difficulties inherent in Apple selling the phone, you can't rule it out completely.

They're leaving it awfully late if they are.

It's Apple, we come to expect no news until there is news.

This is the news from me....

- I called various Optus stores in Sydney today and also went in physically. Most said that the stores will open early at 7am.

- Sydney Opttus owned store will open at midnight.

- Deposit does not guarantee a phone, but those people will get priority queuing up.

I then put up the question that I am not one of those deposit people and will be in font, will you sell the phone to me ?
Sales girls reply: Yes, we will. We wont be waiting for the deposit people to come all day. If we have stock we wont hold it back for anyone special, we will sell it.

- One store said that they should have stock also for the walk ins. others said, it will be tight, chances are not.

Then went to the apple store here in Sydney:
Will you sell iPhone on the 11th ?
Reply: May be, not sure yet, but come next week and you might see some changes in the store.

None of the Apple employes said out right NO. All said don't know, we hope so. If they were not going to sell, my guess is that thy would have just said NO we wont be. I'm taking their MAY BE as a YES they will sell the iPhone on the 11th.

What say you ???