the iphone 4 saga

ever since the iphone 4 was announce, i have been drooling to have one or to even touch one; and since the us iphone won't be sold as unlock units, the only chance i have was to wait for globe telecoms to bring it here or i get one from gray market. i made reservations already with globe, but my frustration for globe's not getting back to me took its toll; and i decided to just risk it and get a unit from hong kong if i can get one given the scarcity of units all over the world.

i searched around on how to scout for an iphone 4 from authorized apple resellers via blogs and forums. i printed out a 2-page list of stores and their addresses - this is how i prepared to this calvary to find that elusive jesus-phone.

oct 16 - 1st day in hong kong. even though we have strict schedule, i took every chance i get to check out the stores i have in the. i have checked out different fortress stores (around 5 i guess) to no avail. we carried on to what we were supposed to do in the city - that is to visit disneyland. seeing lotsa people around playing with their iphone 4 made me feel sad and frustrated. even my brothers know how affected i am. that's how serious i was about getting an iphone there. day 1 done with no iphone and i slept with sadness within me.

oct 17 - day 2 and we really have dedicated the morning for shopping and my search for the iphone. my brothers were really supportive, and i appreciate them on cheering me up. the whole morning, while we were shopping i was checking out around if there were fortress or broadway or any apple store around. I believed we were able to check out around 20 authorized apple reseller just for that elusive phone. I gave up already and and prepared myself to go home empty handed until my brother checked out 1 store and he asked him to go back after 3 hours, they are waiting for the shipment. i rejoiced, really, that time. and even if the shipment won't happen, i held to that string of hope. we decided to go to mongkok to check out that computer center and the sneaker street. went back before 6 pm (before that 3 hours we spared) and viola, the very kind chinese guy reserved a 32gb unit for me! i was really thankful to him and also to my brother who checked out that store.