The said interview is based on an interview with a former Apple employee in Texas who spoke anonymously to protect their privacy. Business Insider has confirmed their identity and work. The following information has been edited for length and clarity.
I started at Apple as a junior salesperson in 2016, and after a few years, I worked my way up to become a Genius Bar leader.
During my nearly six years with the company, I worked at nearly every Apple Store location in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.
Whenever there was a new opening, I always volunteered for night shifts and stayed during the day. Everyone arrived at the last minute.
Until 2019 – when they implemented the storage method – there was only hype when it was a new iPhone launch. There were never people waiting for new watches or new Macs – it was just new iPhones.
Preparations for the launch date began next week.
During the week before launch, we would receive a pallet of equipment that our managers had locked and keyed until the night before launch.
The night would start at 10 pm We would gather, and the leadership would take everyone’s cell phones, Apple Watches, or computers and put them in a locker.
From then on, we were not allowed to leave the store or use the phones without the guidance of the manager. We weren’t arrested or anything, but it was very secretive, even though everyone knew what was going on.
So, we stayed up all night taking all the old equipment from the shop and refurbishing the new ones.
You couldn’t take pictures or record. You couldn’t talk about anything or test the device. They wanted to keep the launch date special, with the first response coming from actual customers rather than Apple employees. It makes sense.
It was more than just swapping out new devices and sending the old ones off for recycling – or whatever else Apple decided to do with the older ones.
When new chargers or accessories are involved, it can be difficult to reroute cables under uniform tables in Apple stores. Sometimes it was so much equipment that we had to replace the entire store, and sometimes it required us to remove the store’s security alarm before we could disconnect it.
We would go until 6 am or 7 am the next day. It was definitely a lot of work, but it was always a lot of fun.
Mostly everyone was a seller on the day of the launch.
If the leadership allowed us, we could stay a few hours before the opening if we weren’t too tired. Usually, everyone went home after that, but I was one of the few Geniuses who worked on saving the technique for the launch days.
For the rest of the technical team, it was the one day a year when they were told, “You’re no longer on the technical side. You’re now a salesperson.”
The store was usually fully stocked and focused on sales rather than hardware issues. We would allow technical reservations ahead of time and not interfere unless the person’s phone was completely dead and unusable.
My hours were long, but only as long as I wanted to stay. Some leaders might say, “No, brother. You’ve been here all night. Go home.”
Regardless of where you are, Apple follows California law, which means a mandatory break every three hours. They paid attention to the hours we worked, and we were never required to work again.
Although the individual excitement of the startup days diminished when I left Apple in 2022, there were always two distinct crowds.
There were people who had already made up their minds even before seeing the phone that they were going to buy it no matter what. It didn’t matter if Apple took the shares – they wanted whatever the company would give them.
And then there were those who came in after the start date by accident – they were very interested in checking the calls to see what they were talking about.
Regarding the iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence, the AI hype is real across the industry. I didn’t expect Apple to rely so much on AI. Usually, they take a few years when new software comes out to make sure they do it right.
But Apple is always doing great things with software, so this AI suit is perfect.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Are you a current or former Apple employee with an insight to share? Contact reporter Jordan Hart via Signal’s private messaging app (jordanhart.99) or email (jhart@businessinsider.com)from an inactive device.