As he does for pretty much every big Apple release, CEO Tim Cook popped into the Palo Alto store on Friday, the day the iPhone 7 officially went on sale.
Instead of just browsing around the store and shaking hands like he usually does, Cook joined the Apple employee team, dressed in a blue sweatshirt just like his co-workers, and cheered and clapped when customers walked in the glass-paned store on University Avenue.
As has become tradition, Apple-philes lined up, even as much as a day or two before store doors opened at 8 a.m around the world, hoping to be one of the lucky first users of the new phone.
David Eaton was one of those people. But his early-bird attitude didn't pan out. He wanted the larger iPhone screen, and was disappointed when a manager came out and told crowd at about 5 a.m. that the iPhone 7 Plus was already sold out.
Eager fans could have purchased the coveted piece of technology online days before Friday's release, but some still chose to wait in line for hours and soak in the annual waiting experience. That decision doesn't surprise some techies.
"When it comes to apple, the fascination people have with this brand is cult-like," Carolina Milanesi, an analyst from Creative Strategies, said.
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Last year, Cook was in Palo Alto buying a white smartwatch.
