NEW YORK -- Stormy Shippy and Gary Allen have done this before. Customers No. 1 and 2, respectively, through the doors at Apple's first 24-hour store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, which opened at 6 p.m. on Friday -- the pair had the same positions when they met at the grand opening of Apple's London store in 2004.
And despite the skittish late-spring weather -- with frequent, unseasonably chilly thunderstorms -- this isn't the worst they've seen at Apple store grand openings.
This time was "totally easy" said the aptly named Stormy (his real name), who said the weather was far worse at the London opening in 2004.
Here in New York the two men had camped out in the rain to be the first inside the swank new store. They arrived in New York at 12:15 a.m. on Thursday and were eventually joined by about 18 others for a wet, overnight sleep out, said Allen, who flew out from Berkeley, California, for the event.
The rest of the crowd, which eventually numbered several hundred, trailed around the block of Fifth Avenue and 59th Streets, and trickled in during the late morning and afternoon.
Just before the store's glass doors were thrown open, about 50 staff flanked the door and counted down. As Shippey, Allen and the others filed in, they were cheered and high-fived by staff who lined the glass stairway leading down into the subterranean store.
Apple's CEO Steve Jobs attended the opening but kept a low profile.
"Steve, you're hot!" yelled a woman in line when Jobs appeared in front of the building.
Jobs didn’t make a speech, but he did sign a magazine for Matt Duffy, who traveled from Scotland for the opening carrying a copy of Macworld magazine with a young, bushy-haired Steve Jobs on the cover.
In the first minutes after the store opened, Duffy approached Jobs who, after fumbling a bit in embarrassment, autographed the old magazine.
"I've just had my lifetime ambition," said Duffy, choking back tears.
Apple definitely has an appeal that exceeds mere brand loyalty, and takes on the character of a true cult following.
"Did you see that enthusiasm?" asked Stormy Shippy, shortly after entering the store.
"The noise, the applause….You don't get that in Dallas," he said of his hometown.
"It's a social event," said Allen. "(It's) an opportunity to meet people from other states, from other countries, who share an interest in Apple."
Allen is also working. He reports on store openings around the world for his popular ifoAppleStore website (ifo is short for In Front of AppleStore).
"Anything missing, people will e-mail me and ask," he said. "The floor will be something I have to report on."
Shippy and Allen are, of course, the most dedicated. But Apple added enticements for a wider audience. Apple is giving away one of its new MacBook laptops every hour for the first 24 hours, as well as 2,500 free T-shirts.
Major Lightner, a music-video director, said Apple's other Manhattan store in SOHO "had definitely become the hippest place in town. You see more hip people there than in the bars and the clubs."
But are Apple's stores hip enough to visit at any time of the day or night?
"If the city never sleeps, so be it," said Melchior Villafnerte, a child-care provider who also does graphic design work for a day care center. "I won't be sleeping tonight."
The appeal goes beyond late-night hipsters, though, and reaches all age groups.
"I heard the Apple store openings are quite enjoyable," said 15-year-old Charles Sporn, who came on his own about two and a half hours before the opening, sporting a baseball cap with the classic rainbow-colored Mac logo.
This was his first opening, he said, noting that he missed the opening of Apple's SOHO store.
"It happened before I was a Mac fanatic," he said.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/ma...l?tw=rss.index Photos 
hardware
prices 
