As Apple CEO Steve Jobs finished up his demonstration of the iPod shuffle and announced that "they are shipping from the factory today," he casually mentioned that he had heard they were a few at the Apple Store a few blocks away from the Moscone Center.
It came as little surprise to me to find that just minutes later the Apple Store three blocks away was packed with people, most of whom were in line to buy one (or ten) of the new iPod shuffles. Only the 512MB version was available and while they had ample stock while I waited in line for almost half an hour to purchase one--ample, at least, to not have to limit the quantity you could purchase--employees there, who had only learned of the device minutes ago themselves, expected to run out of shuffles quickly. San Francisco is apparently the only place in the country you can get them at the moment (the online Apple Store estimates shipment at one week for the 512MB model, and 1-2 weeks for the 1GB version).
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