Me and my wife is going tonight! We are on the 12am-4am slot. Both signing iPhone 4 32GB and iValue1. Reaching around 11pm. Hopefully they will have accessories stalls as well. One time get everything.

Gonna be a late night party!

Fu~ Guys and girls it was a rough night!

Originally planned to come in at 11pm but then scrapped the plan because I have been hearing news about tickets being issued. So after a quick dinner, we arrived 830pm. The official entrance is from the mall itself and the queue was already long but manageable. Staffs were there to capture our records and issue a slip. In 30 minutes we were in front the door. Just a shy few numbers and we would have joined the media launch at 12am.

10pm sharp we were in but the first 60 customers were inside the inner hall. Entertainment, live game events and some refreshment awaited us. By the way, the refreshments were over-rated. They made it sound like there is some cocktails going on. Live demo sets were there and the staffs were very eager to let us try it. 11pm the crowd grew restless. Most of them converged at the glass door going into the inner hall. Photographers, video men, lighting crew were everywhere. Some were pushy some were polite enough to ask excuse me.

11.30pm, we saw some big shots going into the hall just in time for the launch event. Everyone was so excited. Then the countdown started at 11.59pm and everyone was out of control. Another 15 minutes and the event was soon over. All the crews went out with the big shots leaving the 2nd wave on their own. And then the number calling started which soon proved to be a silly thing to do. The MC was calling the first 20 numbers and then grew frustrated. She then did the UNIMAGINABLE.

Letting whoever who is in front pass even though their numbers were so far behind. 5 pax every minute or so until it reaches 80. We were lucky to be in front the glass door cause our focus was the phone and bedtime rather than hanging around. Once we got in, we go into a counter. Within the hour we left the hall. There were accessories store and a 25% discount was offered to customers. But nothing fancy cause I wanted Switcheasy. They were sold at RM59-RM149 before discount. Screen protectors were also sold.

1.30am we left the hall and saw the line still growing strong all the way to the car park! By 2am we got back home and was too tired to even touch our phones.

So to the prospective owners! All the best and congratulations!

Well actually we wanted to experience the launch atmosphere. We heard about oversea launches so much from the internet and youtube and for once we wanted to get into the hype. But really, I expected something like KL Convention Center launch quality (the one Maxis did for 3G). This time it is a bit clumsy. I mean the hall is really small and the crowd management is well typical... really typical.

Yeah agreed, it was an epic screw up. They 'improvise' on the rules (eg whoever in front can go in first or anyone can go in as long as they have a valid ticket) by themselves which proved to be a failure. Should have sticked to plan. I realized their ticketing display was a problem too. Only a LCD TV display and some small display elsewhere. Big failure.

I was lucky to have not been screwed for their mistake. I was very early in the queue anyway so I deserved it too.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 24 2010, 09:58 AM

I guess should be possible. The staffs actually verify your IC with your email booking printout before recording information into a slip. When you reach the main entrance, they will verify again before giving you a ticket. After that, anyone with a ticket will gain access to the hall.

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Added on September 24, 2010, 10:01 amThe 3001 - 305x was actually a part of the first 60 customers (including some from Maxis One Club and other priority numbers) so naturally they were artificially screened through the display. Wave 2 actually starts at 306x for RSVP bookings.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 24 2010, 10:01 AM