Australians queue 10 days for iPhone 6

Four Australians have been in queue for 10 days to get their hands on the iPhone 6 - only to give two away to a lucky pair.

Salvatore Gerace, 22, Sam Vieira, 21, Davor Beric, 25, Christian Ibrahim, 21, who have been in line since Sep 9 at the flagship Apple Store in Sydney are part of a PR stunt for Alphatise, an Australian marketplace start-up.

According to Mashable.com, the men have given away two 128GB space grey iPhone 6s through the Alphatise app to lucky Sydney natives Ellen Colusso and Edward Tran.

The new phone was released in Australia at the Apple Store Sydney at around 8am (6am local time) today (Sep 19, 2014). Due to the time zone differences, Australia will be the first nation to get their hands on the device.

The Alphatise app allows users to "wish" on a product and the retailer can accept the amount offered. The concept behind this is to ensure that power is given back to the consumer.

To win the phones, users had to use the app to wish on the The Apple iPhone 6 product. There were more than 5,000 bids in total.

Christian and Salvatore were on the daytime shift at the Apple Store while Sam and Davor clock in at 7pm each night.

The two morning shift holders told Mashable that their new working conditions have posed some challenges. But it has allowed them to see another side to the city from their fold-up chairs.

"We've gotten to know the local characters that come out at night time. You see a different part of Sydney out here," Christian said.

Sam and Davor on the other hand, crash on sleeping bags under umbrellas each night. But they said that it was apparently easier as they get to spend more time sleeping and not worry about the mass amounts of attention that come with being a daytime Apple star.

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"It's just a normal day at work but it's outside and we are subject to a lot of scrutiny. We are getting a lot of attention," Salvator said.

The guys spent a lot of time analysing the pavement, playing cards and making friends. The only thing that makes them crazier than most, they say, is that they are putting themselves through 10 days of boredom for no personal gain.

Over the week, Christian and Salvatore have watched the Godfather four times in a row, tested multiple YouTube pranks on unsuspecting victims and have completed the Entourage series.

They've also started helping customers with enquires such as store opening times and call themselves "pseudo-genuises".

The guys said that they want to push for more entrepreneurship in Australia and encourage other brands to create unique publicity campaigns.

"We've made friends with the guys working at Apple, and they are very support of us and what we are doing," Christian said.

"They love tech and they want to see tech increase in coverage and popularity in Australia. There is a lack of entrepreneurship that is being endorsed locally, unlike in America, where you have Silicon Valley. We want Alphatise to be a pioneer in growing that industry in this country."

According to Christian, the 10-day stunt has been a huge success especially since they could leverage on the Apple brand to kick start the Alphatise brand.

"It has already paid off, but we want to see the fruits of our labour on Friday and see how far this thing really goes," he said.

Christian plans to hit some golf balls after the stunt while Salvatore is going to straight to bed.

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