There was still a pretty sizable crowd of people—probably a few hundred—penned in outside the Apple store Quartz visited this morning, because even though Apple said that it was going to be sold out of many iPhone models even before launch day, some people wanted to try their luck. There were still people camping in tents, setting up folding chairs, and people offering to pay others for their slots in line. Apple still gets the press covering the over-zealous people that just have to have their phones on the first day. But for most people, there’s no need to stand in line anymore.

The majority of people with reservations waiting early on iPhone 7 launch day at the Fifth Avenue Apple store.
The majority of people with reservations waiting early on iPhone 7 launch day at the Fifth Avenue Apple store.
Image: Quartz/Dave Gershgorn

Quartz reporter Dave Gershgorn and I waited in line for about 15 minutes at one of the busiest Apple Stores in the most densely populated city in the US, and Dave had his iPhone about 30 minutes after that. It took me slightly longer, mainly just because I forgot the passcode on my AT&T account. The Apple employee who served us told us that he had started late (we were his first iPhone customers of the day at about 10am), but he expected to process at least 70 people today. In all, waiting to be served and getting the two iPhones with our reservations took roughly 90 minutes. There was no hassle, no searching for stock, or lost reservations. The Apple employee knew where our phones were the second they scanned our reservations, and could follow the other employees getting the phones and bringing them out on their modified Apple-store iPhone. It was frictionless.

Scanning my reservation barcode from my old iPhone.
Scanning my reservation barcode from my old iPhone.
Image: Quartz/Dave Gershgorn

When I signed up for the iPhone Upgrade Program and purchased an iPhone 6S Plus last October—nearly a month after the phone went on sale—I had to wait for nearly 2 hours at an Apple store, only to have Apple’s system momentarily lose my reservation. A year later, Apple’s back-end systems appear to have caught up with the polished veneer of customers’ retail experience. It seems that the hiring of former Burberry retail chief Angela Ahrendts is starting to show its utility.

After a decade of perfecting the iPhone, Apple seems to have finally figured out how to get them into our hands as rapidly as possible. This can only have positive effects on the company’s stalling sales in recent quarters. Now, if only it could have made a phone that had actually been worth standing in line for.

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