I wonder if I will be grilled for saying, “Americans are crazy”. But I have no choice but to feel that way (particularly for the last 6 hours). Reason: I have been following the iPhone release for that long. And all I can hear everyone and anyone talk about is the iPhone. There are long queues.

Photos credit: Gabe Rivera of Techmeme

TechCrunch is covering it. GigaOm has a series of posts ranging from comparisons between iPod and iPhone to speculates why Edge is not included in the iPhone. Seth learns a lesson from why Verizon turned down the iPhone. And Zooomr’s Kristopher is playing the host live on Ustream.tv. Robert Scoble is in line. And there are lots more.

In India, waiting in queue for a new gadget (or anything new for that matter) to come out is unheard of. Please correct me if I am wrong. And I find it amazing that people would go to such lengths to do this.

Steve Jobs must be so happy! And GigaOm says there is still 5 hours and 16 minutes left.

Seth Godin talks about Verizon’s rant against the iPhone. Well..it is a memo to Verizon employees on how the iPhone is not such a great phone and what they should know to possibly dissuade customers from getting the iPhone. Seth makes an interesting statement – “your criticism of the phone is also criticism of my judgment”.

Positive marketing means you focus on the pros of your product or service. It also means that the customer understands what stands out in your offering.

Negative marketing may mean harping on the bad points of your competitor – or just plain poking fun! But does it really help? It may just put off the customer and help tilt the scales in favour of the competitor.

Scoble wants to get three iPhones. Wow! But that’s exactly the problem (not Scoble getting three phones!). You see Apple has created such good hype over their latest offering – everyone wants it. And you putting some mud on it is not going to take off the sheen. You need to make yours shine better.