3G Apple iPhone Launch – Line at Apple Store in White Plains, NY (The Westchester Mall) from StationStops Admin on Vimeo.

Last week I drove to my local Apple Store on launch day to check out the 3G iPhone launch lines.

Once I got there, and saw the 200+ people in line, I got in my car and drove home.

The cost of that ride was about $5.50 in fuel.

I couldn’t help wondering – how many gallons of fuel has been consumed by 3G iPhone buyers – and more importantly, by people who have driven to Apple Stores to get an iPhone, and have left because of the lines, lack of inventory, or other reasons?

Well, lets consider that 1 Million 3G iPhones were purchased in the first weekend of sales, and, unlike the original iPhone, ALL of them have been purchased at a store, as they cannot be purchased online.

Lets assume, conservatively, that an additional 200,000 units have been sold since opening weekend, and that for every 10 successful iPhone purchases, 2 people turned around and went home for any of the reasons we mentioned.

This is a total of 1,224,000 iPhone road trips – just for the first week of sales.

We will also assume that my round-trip of 22 miles is the average for most people ( I have no idea, but since there are only a handful per state, and AT&T sales were negligible, this is probably conservative), the US average 19.8 MPG rating, and today’s average fuel price of $4.10 a gallon.

The cost of this trip is about $4.56.
Multiply this by 1,224,000 and you get $5,581,440 (!)

That’s right, prospective iPhone buyers have likely spent over $5.5 Million just on gasoline to buy a new 3G iPhone.

What can be done about this in the future?

First is that it would be great if Apple were to bring back online iPhone sales – not just for the fuel, but because it is so much easier for those of us who have no interest whatsoever in huge lines or driving to a store multiple times to find out there is no stock.

Secondly, the Apple website and stores need to stay better updated on current inventory. Right now, the iPhone inventory app on their website is only *viewable* after 9 PM (why I don’t know – they could just note “this is how many there were last night“), and only updated once a day.

It would be great if, until a regular supply comes about, all Apple Stores showed their realtime availability on the Apple website. In these days of electronic scanning this shouldn’t be rocket science – lots of online stores show their realtime inventory, I’m sure it cant be that hard for retail to implement.