One benefit to living in Polk County, FL is that when something like the iPhone launch happens you can be sure to find 'smaller' lines here, compared to Orlando or Tampa. Across the US there were HUGE lines at Apple Stores, but for the most part AT&T Wireless stores fared a bit better. In my case, the Winter Haven AT&T store was the perfect location.

I arrived around 3:30 to find myself 13th in line. The first person in line arrived at 7 p.m. on Thursday, the second person said he showed up around 3 a.m. The one question on everybody's mind was, "How many phones do they have?" The other folks said that earlier in the day the manager had come out and said he couldn't tell them how many phones they had, but that everybody in line (at that time) would be getting one.

As scheduled the AT&T store closed at 4:30 for staff to prep. The manager came out again and reviewed the sales process and answered some basic questions about the phone. Once again he surveyed the line and said that everyone would be getting a phone.

The line slowly grew up until shortly before 5 p.m. That's when more people began to arrive. The store manager came out and handed out numbers to the first 30 people in line and said they would be allowing 10 people in at a time to purchase the phone.

By the time 6 p.m. rolled around the line was probably 40 people deep. With a slight amount of applause the store opened and the first 10 shoppers entered. As number 13 I was forced to wait outside for the next 15 minutes. During the time the manager manned the front door and fielded question from shoppers. He finally confessed that the store had a total of 60 phones. Of those, 40 were the 8GB model and 20 were the 4GB model.

I was let in the store around 6:20 and the played with the demo units while I waited for my number to be called. One thing to note is that the demo units are connected to the internet via wifi so they're very fast. Obviously the 'cellular' connection won't be as fast.

The selection of cases wasn't that impressive so I held off on purchasing one. Soon my number was called and I purchased my 8 GB unit and was on my way. As I walked out I showed the packaging to the rest of the folks in line.

Arriving home is when the fun began. I attempted to use the online registration system but received and error and was told to call AT&T. I called, waited 30 minutes and then was told they'd call me. Great. It's not 9:45 p.m. and still no call from AT&T.

I'll post an update when anything new happens.

In other coverage, Kyle Kennedy has a recap of some action in Lakeland, David checks in from Atlanta and Rex bailed in Nashville.