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I Didn't Pre-Order An iPhone 5, And I'm Not Waiting In Some Ridiculous Line, So When Can I Get One?

ipad, ipad 3, apple store, apple, line, wait, bi, dng, march 2012
I'm sure this is an amazing, life-altering experience, but...
Daniel Goodman / Business Insider

I was dimly aware that "pre-orders" for the iPhone 5 were going to begin sometime around now.

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And scanning the headlines this morning, I gather that "sometime" was last night at 12:01am.

And I gather that iPhone 5 "pre-orders" sold out in 14.2 seconds or something.

I also gather that the iPhone 5 will actually go on sale sometime soon. And I know from experience what that will mean:

Hundreds of people who have the time to blow half a day getting something they don't need will spend half a day waiting in line for iPhone 5s.

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Sadly, I don't have the time to blow half a day waiting in line.

This whole experience, by the way, is familiar.

Last time a new iPhone came out, I missed the "pre-orders."  Then, a few weeks later, when the hype had died down, I went to an Apple Store at 7am to get one. I expected to be in and out in 10 minutes--and I was. Because what the helpful Apple Store clerk told me when I walked in and asked for a new iPhone was that I had apparently not seen the line of 50-odd people who had been waiting outside all night to buy all the iPhones that would become available that day and mail them back to China.

After that experience, I tried to order an iPhone online, but there was some problem with the online Apple Store failing to communicate with my AT&T account, so I eventually gave up on that.

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By then, a couple of more weeks had gone by, so I decided to just wait for the iPhone 5.

And now the iPhone 5 is here. Sort of.

So I have a simple question.

Given that I have apparently missed the "pre-orders" and given that there's probably still some problem between the Apple Store and my AT&T account and given that I'm not going to blow half a day waiting in line, when can I get one?

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I mean, when will I be able to just walk into an Apple Store and buy one?

SEE ALSO: Why So Many People Hate The iPhone 5

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