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Charlie Hufnagel holds up the new iPhone 5 after he became the first person to buy the phone in San Francisco on Friday. (Mark Cao/The Epoch Times)
SAN FRANCISCO—Since Monday morning Charlie Hufnagel, 24, had been camped out in front of Apple’s flagship store in San Francisco. This morning he was the first in the bay area to buy the new iPhone 5.
“It feels like a massive burden has been lifted from my shoulders. This has been one of the more surreal weeks of my life I have to say,” said Hufnagel after buying two iPhone 5s.
Hufnagel said that his iPhone 4 screen had cracked, so it was time to get an upgrade.
“This is the first time I have actually been to an Apple launch, it’s just crazy the sense of community that every one has in the camp the night before,” said Hufnagel.
But it was not solely his desire to buy a new iPhone that led Hufnagel to endure nearly four days on the pavement in a tent in front of the store. He was hired by a man through the website www.taskrabbit.com, a website that allows users to hire people to do errands. Hufnagel was paid $1500 dollars to camp out as early as Monday.
Johnny Brackett, marketing & communications manager at taskrabbit, says a total of 230 people were in line in front of the Apple stores in New York and San Francisco to buy the new iPhone 5 for people who paid them to do so through the taskrabbit website.
Apple was criticized by some users on Thursday who said the maps feature on the latest version of iOS (iOS 6), the operating system that powers its iconic iPhones and iPads, contained geographical errors and missed certain features.
For Hufnagel, who said he missed most news over the past few days, it is a minor issue.
“As they get the bugs worked out of the system it will be less of an issue,” he said.
After Apple’s announcement for the release of the new iPhone 5 on September 12, the company made a pre-order sale record of 2 million in the first 24-hours.
The iPhone 5 went on sale across the world on Friday, leaving Apple stores inundated with customers.
