That’s right. I’ve made it back safely to New Zealand. And, as you all know (well, you better know…), I had some precious cargo.

But right now, I’m not concerned with fanboying over the new iPhone. Okay, so maybe I am a little, but more on that later. What I really want to discuss is the actual logistics of the entire event.

I felt that it all went quite smoothly. People lined up, they were served. Exactly how it should be. Except, you know, the lines weren’t even on their property, and they had to go far beyond the call of duty for us. I’m sure they were paid handsomely for their efforts, but that’s not the point.

Apple staff began to make their appearance at around 5:30 AM. They were great. Really. They kept the atmosphere lively, and put up with the strain of the same repetitive questions that they received with every footstep. I swear, I was getting more frustrated than them, and I wasn’t even being asked anything. In fact, I was quite lonely. Well, up until 6ish, when I linked onto an Emerates Pilot Captain from UAE. He was friendly enough.

The Apple staff handed out queue cards, which were, essentially, our tokens for our iPhone 5s. We chose what colour and how much memory, then we took this to the desk, then we got our phones. Of course, this took about four hours each time attempted.

I really can’t stress how many people were there. They would have easily sold 2000 iPhone 5s while I was there. But, like I said before, the Apple Store’s staff made it quite smooth and as pain-free as they could (besides the standing pains, and whatever else you might have picked up in the line).

I’d also like to apologise for the lack-of-promised video. I had to choose between replying to Tweets and updating the blog, or taking a video and leaving you all in the dark. I’m seriously considering investing in an external battery case.
Also, sorry for randomly stopping with the Twitter. After you’ve just stood in a never-ending queue, with little-to-no sleep, you start to lose motivation.
One more thing that I’m sorry for – for being so repetitive. I feel like I’ve told you the same things over and over again.

But yeah, I feel like I’m about to get thrashed on this topic, so I’m bracing myself for all your questions.

…

Okay, so it seems that a few of you are still a little bit confused about the reach of Apple’s releases to New Zealand. I’ll give a rundown on what I know so far:

iOS 6 is being released today. Make sure you back-up your devices before you install. That way, when you restore, all your contacts, messages and apps will be saved, and you’ll still be running the iOS 6 firmware.

Yes, Facetime is still supposed to work in New Zealand over 3G. Obviously I’m not able to confirm that yet, but there has been nothing to tell me that it won’t work.

Apparently the new dictation feature of iOS 6 doesn’t understand the Kiwi accent, which doesn’t seem to make sense to me, as Siri can understand me just fine. We’ll see how all that goes, though, when it’s released. On the topic of Siri, she’s still going to be fairly useless, as she doesn’t have a clue what Burger Fuel is, or Hell’s Pizza, for that matter, and I don’t think she’s that much of an avid fan of the All Blacks, or Wellington’s Phoenix. Also, she hasn’t brushed up on her geography skills, since the last time we met her. Apparently she isn’t too good on giving directions around the country.

I can never find any times for any releases, and, quite frankly, it’s starting to annoy me… Someone posted in the chatbox to the right that it should be released at 1PM New Zealand time. That’s the closest that I’ve managed to find.

As for the iPhone 5, pre-order seems to be the 21st of this month, in New Zealand, and will be on the shelves on Friday 28th September. As for the time, I really have no idea, like usual. I’m guessing that it’ll be midnight, if you buy it online from the Apple Store. As for retail outlets, maybe they’re running their own special promotion times, or they plan to be open at midnight as well. It might pay to visit your local store to see what they have planned for it. But I do know that it is speculated that, by the end of the month, sales will have reached between 10-12 million worldwide.

The RRP of the iPhone in New Zealand will be $1049 for the 16GB model, $1199 for the 32GB model and $1349 for the 64GB model.

Vodafone have confirmed that nano-SIMs will be available when the devices that use them go on sale. Telecom don’t have public details on that yet, but I’m fairly certain that they will stock it, as covered here.

Now, as for the cost of the smartphones when locked into a contract, that’s something that I’m unsure about. As a disclaimer, I’m telling you guys now that the following is my assumption, and I wouldn’t take it to be factual if I were you:

When the iPhone 4S was released, the prices were the same as what the iPhone 5 is now. This tells me that, besides the obvious price drop in the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 plans SHOULD be the same as what the iPhone 4S plans were.
If the iPhone 5 were to follow its predecessor’s footsteps, then here are what the contracts would look like (prices are for the 16GB version):

Telecom:

And for Vodafone:

That’s all the information that I could gather in regards to New Zealand’s releases. If you have any more questions, post them in a comment below, and I’ll try get hold of the respective TelCo’s to see if I can get answers.

Edit: Okay, so I just got told through our Facebook page that we have iOS 6 download times available here. I have a slight problem with this.

Here is the table from the website, telling us the iOS 6 launch times:

And here is the table that I had ready during the Sept. 12 Media Event:

Yeeeaaah… I’m a little skeptical. But hey, maybe they’re actually the right times. You never know.…