Apple Store doors open - iPhone 3GS launch draws smaller crowd

At 5:30 this morning there were perhaps 8 that braved thunderstorms overnight in Chicagoland and were outside the Northbrook Court mall, in the northern suburb. Security let them in around 6.

This time Apple was ready. The Orange shirt concierge employees were outside shuffling through the two lines of folks making sure they were ready to get in and out as quickly as possible to keep the lines moving.

By 6:30 there were perhaps some 30 people in the two lines created the night before. Both the pre-order and non were quietly chatting with each other and passers by who were getting in their morning walk.

I saw a decent cross section of suits and soccer moms. Overall not as many by far were in line as in years past, which I'm sure was a little disappointing to the numerous Apple Store employees inside, security outside, and the few shops that opened early to perhaps lure a few dollars their way. The Starbucks employee preparing my drink was pretty matter of fact about it. "People just don't want to spend 200 dollars on a phone." Another store nearby had opened early. Music was playing and the salaried employee inside who worked the previous night was looking a little tired. His corporate office had given the word to open early today. Seems no opportunity should be wasted these days. He laments that there wasn't enough advertising and had only found out about today's launch a couple of days ago.

2 years ago at this location there were hundreds in long lines and lots of folks watching from below and on the 2nd floor. The large iPhone displays in the window had a countdown clock and the final moments echoed throughout the mall as a black curtain put down was pulled down dramatically. This morning was a more subdued, no curtain, and the clapping mainly came from the employees inside.

Still at 7:00am, the doors opened and the pre-registered folks started filing in to get their phones. I hear that there may be as many as 600 phones in stock at this location, so if that's the case there should be more than enough. I think we'll see slow and steady crowds throughout today and into the weekend. It will be interesting to see if the AT&T servers get bogged down as surely a large number of phones are activated today.

Stay tuned.