Apple to Dell switch causes riot
p2pnet.net News:- A decision by the Henrico County school system in Virginia to switch from Apple iBooks to Dell systems caused a near riot.
But not because anyone was upset by the fact Apple was out and Dell was in. Rather, 1,000 Apple laptops were going for $50.
More than 5,500 people lined up for a chance to buy one and, “In the crush 17 people were injured and four needed hospital treatment,” says the BBC, going on:
“The sale was due to begin at 9am local time, but as the queue grew to almost a kilometre in length, organisers brought forward the start time by two hours. When the gates opened, a stampede started as people raced to be at the head of the queue for the cheap iBooks.”
One desperate buyer tried to drive his car through the crowd and, “Eyewitnesses described the scene as ‘terrifying’ and ‘total, total chaos’,” adds the Beeb.
If there’s omething you think we should know, contact us – tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
BBC – Cheap laptops provoke Mac mayhem, August 17, 2005
August 18th, 2005 at 12:44 am
Cosumer society and people starts acting like the morons they are. $50 for an ibook, that should be the street price if Apple & others didn’t take all the cash to put directly in their (huge) pockets.
Property is theft!
August 18th, 2005 at 12:55 am
people are stupid what can i say
August 18th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Yes people do irrational things, but wanting to purchase a state of the art laptop for 50 bucks is not one of them.
This is more of an organizational problem. Poor forethought and poor planning on the part of the people dispersing the computers. There should have been a much better plan for handling the crowd.
The people who acted stupidly are the ones who did not see this coming. If you are giving someone a 1000.00 for 50.00 what do you think they should expect.
But maybe they thought no one would want those lousy, crappy, non Microsoft pieces of junk. Seems as though 5000 people didn’t think they were junk. Speaks to the stupidy of getting rid of them in the first place ….. wouldn’t you say ?
August 19th, 2005 at 12:10 am
“wanting to purchase a state of the art laptop for 50 bucks”
State of the art? Are you kidding? You seem to be laboring under the same deluded assumtion that many of the people trying to buy these iBooks did. Some of the NEW iBooks are going for around $1000. Are we to assume that the school district is staffed by idiots? Are they really going to sell brand new $1000 laptops for $50? iBooks have been around for YEARS. $50 for a 5 year old laptop may (or may not) be a good deal but it’s definitely not worth being trampeled over. Yes Virginia, a LOT of people are stupid, even some Mac fans…