Nov 21, 2008 1:57 pm US/Eastern
'CrackBerry' Storm Sells Out Across NYC
Addicts Line Up Early Only To Find Out They'd Go Home Empty-handed
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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It was gridlock outside Verizon stores on Friday morning as self-proclaimed BlackBerry addicts tried to get their hands on the latest and perhaps greatest injection of "CrackBerry" yet.
CBS
It was gridlock outside Verizon stores on Friday morning as self-proclaimed BlackBerry addicts tried to get their hands on the latest and perhaps greatest injection of "CrackBerry" yet.
It was overcast in Manhattan on Friday morning, but the clouds and cold temperatures had nothing on the BlackBerry Storm that blew in overnight.
The line began forming outside the Verizon shop on 81st Street and Broadway at 6 a.m., shoppers braving the sub-freezing temperatures and the equally cold economy to be the first to get their hands on the world's first touch-screen BlackBerry.
But a storm over the Storm was brewing when many of the technophiles learned they'd be going home empty-handed because Verizon had run out of clickable BlackBerrys.
"I'm very angry. I'm sitting here, standing out here, it's freezing cold. And I expect to walk out with a phone today and I'm not. I'm gonna walk out with a frozen newspaper and frozen feet," says Stephen Wise, a disappointed Verizon customer.
When CBS 2 informed Leslie Covitz, who stood patiently at the end of the line, that she wouldn't be leaving with the phone on Friday and instead be FedExed one Saturday, she wasn't too thrilled with the news.
"Oh my God! I can't believe that. I've been waiting for this phone since July," said Covitz.
Even though Verizon stores had customers sign up for the touch-screen BlackBerrys earlier in the week, they still ran out at stores across the city just minutes after opening, promising to FedEx storms to customers tomorrow.
So what makes this new BlackBerry worth the wait in the freezing cold when we're all in the midst of en economic downtown?
"People love touch screens, this touch screen is special. It's a click screen, a continuation of a touch screen and a physical button that you touch down. That's a brand new technology," says Sasha Segan, a PC Magazine Analyst.
So whether you get your BlackBerry Storm today or tomorrow, there is still a lot of frustration outside the Upper West Side store CBS 2 visited.
"I've been here for three hours. So, it's not worth it. I paid $200 to wait three hours," said Upper West Side resident Elmo Randolph.
And some tech-savvy people like Segan say there are still a lot of bugs in the BlackBerry, so wait for the bug fix in a few weeks.
Verizon said although many stores are sold out of the new item, new shipments are expected tonight.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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