Technology

The new iPhone is coming out and everyone is wanting to get their hands on it. And who wouldn’t? There are so many features on this new phone. It’s an ipod, the internet, and a phone all rolled into one. You can forget about spending hundreds of dollars on every little gadget. And AT&T has decided to try it out.

AT&T has hired 2000 temporary shop workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first mobile phone from Apple. AT&T, the biggest US wireless service provider by customer numbers, will be the country’s only carrier to offer the device when it goes on sale June 29. AT&T and Apple said they planned to start selling the device starting at 6 pm local time in cities across the country.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company had hired the extra summer staff for its 1800 stores in anticipation of “significant demand” for the device. AT&T’s wireless division employs a total of about 58,000 people. The iPhone was first announced in January and combines a music and video player with a Web browser and a touch-sensitive screen in place of a keyboard.

AT&T sales staff had received a total of 100,000 hours of training to sell the device, at “the high end of the normal range” with an average of 6 hours per employee, Mr Siegel said. Apple, which plans to start selling the phone in all of its 162 retail stores on June 29, did not disclose any plans around training or staffing for the launch. Apple will also start selling the phone online on the launch date, but AT&T will first launch only in its stores. “This is such an important product we want to make sure people are fully informed,” when they buy it, Mr Siegel said.

AT&T stores will close locally at 4:30 pm. on that Friday to prepare for the launch, then reopen at 6 pm until 10 pm that night, he said. “We want to free people from the rush of what they would normally encounter on a busy day,” he said. AT&T, which is requiring iPhone shoppers to sign up for a 2-year contract, has not yet revealed the service fees it will charge iPhone customers. The price of an iPhone will be either $US500 ($590) and $US600, depending on the storage space in the phone.