Mulling over the launch of the iPhone on my way back across the Atlantic, it struck me the gender imbalance in the queue. By my estimates only about 1 in 5 queuers were women, and there were very few of these who were without a male escort. So, are women not excited about the iPhone? Are we not queuers? Or does New York just not have very many women?
The last question was answered when I enjoyed my daily dose of GeekSugar. The GeekSugar girls were over in San Francisco covering the launch, and confirmed that they witnessed the same lack of oestrogen in the queue on the opposite coast. In fact, they've got a video as testament to that fact, which you can watch here.
So, it wasn't the location (unless San Francisco is suffering from the same dearth of females as NY). Could it be because we're just not interested in the iPhone?
No, quite frankly. I may be a complete gadget freak, but any woman will confirm that it's the prettiest phone to come out since the LG Prada, and if there's one thing a girl likes in a phone, it's some decent eye candy. And if there's something else that a girl likes (and this is something manufacturers often forget) it's a really easy to use interface. Apple have a good background in this with the iPod, so it wins points for that. And speaking of the iPod, the iPhone will allow you to dump your 'pod, making more room in your handbag. More room for shoes. And make-up. And tissues. A massive generalisation, certainly, but you see my point. The iPhone is *totally* a girl's phone.
Perhaps it's because we want to see how the iPhone is going to perform, before committing to the 2 year contract AT&T were demanding. This is possible, and given Apple's history with problematic first generation products, not entirely stupid.
Or perhaps it's because, contrary to the evidence in Primark's up and down the country, we're not a gender who will readily queue. The first person in the queue was, unsurprisingly, a man. Not only was he a man, he was a man who queued. A lot. He queued for the Wii, the PS3, the XBox 360... He queued for tickets to sports games. He queued for concert tickets. He seemed to be never happier than when he was in a queue (particularly if he was in the front). To earn this primary position, he turned up outside the Apple store 5 whole days before the launch.
There's been a lot of female queues in the fashion world recently, with Kate Moss' topshop collection, Anya Hindmarsh's bag and Boots miracle face cream all prompting lines. But a quick confirmation from the team over on Catwalk Queen confirmed that despite all of these selling out on the day, not one person queued overnight.
It might be that we're not happy sleeping on the street with just a sleeping bag. However, I suspect that t might be that we've got better things to do with our lives. And I also suspect that when you tell your girlfriends you camped out 3 days for a phone, it won't be met with such hero status as it will when a boy tells his man-friends that he did. And that's fine with me. Personally, I'm happy to order my hotly anticipated gadgets online, and wait for them to come to me.
Susi Weaser is the editor of Shiny Shiny and columnist on Dollymix, and can't even queue for the loo.
