"Feel the vibe here, that's what I love," said Harry Sung as he stood in the middle of a buzzing Apple Fifth Ave flagship store. Moments earlier, Sung picked up the first burgundy iPhone 18 Pro Max of the day after being ushered into the glass edifice by none other than new Apple CEO John Ternus.
It was a big day for Sung, who scored his second year in a row as the first Apple customer on iPhone launch day, and an even bigger day for Ternus, who was hosting his first iPhone launch store event as CEO.
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It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Ternus, who officially took over for former CEO Tim Cook (new Executive Chairman) on September 1 and, a week later, was on stage unveiling the iPhone 18 Pro line, new AirPods, new Apple Watches, and the exciting foldable iPhone Duo.
On this day, that flexi-phone was nowhere in sight. Even so, the atmosphere was electric, and it felt, to those of us who've been attending iPhone store launch events for almost 20 years, like the old days.
When I caught up with Ternus inside the store, he told me the day was "exciting," and I could tell he was still a little amped up from the store opening ceremony.
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At precisely 8am ET, Ternus appeared behind the frosted glass doors of Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store and then swung open the doors. He stood for a time, waving to a cheering crowd, behind which was a small cluster of protesters shouting about, among other things, iPhone manufacturing working conditions. As the groundswell of excitement grew around Ternus, the protesters seemed to lose steam.
Ternus then turned to the long line of iPhone customers waiting outside the store, many of whom had pre-ordered the phone last week, and started greeting them. First up was Sung.
In his arm was a binder full of cards denoting the 120 Apple Stores he'd visited around the world. Sung later told me he had met Ternus once before at another product launch at Apple's "100th store" where he'd had Ternus sign the book. The inside cover also featured more than half a dozen other Apple executives' signatures (This is not surprising. In another part of the store, I witnessed Apple head of Retail Deirdre O'Brien signing someone's MacBook.)
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Ternus posed with Sung outside the store and then turned his attention to the next customer.
After collecting his iPhone 18 Pro Max, Sung briefly appeared outside the store again and held his purchase aloft. The crowd cheered again.
Later, when I asked Sung, 21, how he secured his pole position, he told me that first he pre-ordered his burgundy 256GB iPhone 18 Pro Max online (he never leases and always buys), and then he arrived at the store yesterday at 8:30pm ET — and waited.
I asked Sung, who is a native of China but is currently living in New Jersey and attending university, if he's ever owned an Android. He shook his head and then told me his first iPhone was the iPhone 15.
Why, though, does Sung visit all these stores, and why was he here right now? Sung looked at me like I had lobsters dancing on my head. "I love Apple," he told me, as if nothing could be more obvious.
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