[jasonpbecker]

Minimally, the first point is wrong. Official Apple Retail stores all do this the same way. Reservation cards were provided. It's possible that the person while in line was informed they didn't have the color they wanted and left, but highly, highly unlikely (unless they entered later in the day) that they made it into the store and had to walk out.

FWIW, I did see a few people leave because the color they wanted was not available, either to try a carrier store or order online and wait.

Also, 9M in sales and the huge upgrade numbers pretty much speak for themselves. YMMV, but the anecdotes from your circle are not reflective of what happened.

[bane]

You're probably right about the apple brand stores. My personal network didn't relay it that way though. Time will tell if these are sustainable sales figures. They are certainly impressive no matter what. But with a year between phones, I don't think a weekend hit sales model is the best way to do things.