We know that At&t and Apple Stores in the US will be launching the iPhone 3G at 8am local time, but with activation required on-site how long should we expect this ordeal to take us?  According to Bloomberg, which recently asked Ron Johnson, Apple’s retail chief, this exact question,

Our expectation is that in 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll be set up and ready to go.  You’ve got pent-up demand because we haven’t had phones for a while.  Our goal is to always have enough supply for every customer.”

Ron Johnson also went into further details explaining that there are more than 185 Apple retail stores in the US and that each of these stores is expected to handle about 100 customers per hour.  Assuming that Apple Stores close at the usual 9PM time and all 185 stores sell 100 iPhone 3Gs per hour that would suggest an opening day sales potential of more than 240k units.  While this is a completely theoretical assumption based on max output for 13 hours of straight sales across the United States, it seems like a realistic goal for Apple by the end of the weekend.  We are also sure there will be some comparison to the opening weekend Sprint Samsung Instinct sales in the press to follow.

How to be iPhone 3G Ready

• Social Security Number (SSN) – required for your Credit Check
• Credit Card to purchase your iPhone 3G.  If you do not have a credit card or at least a check card you can always pickup a prepaid credit card at your local supermarket and load up the 199 + tax to make your iPhone 3G purchase.
• Account information / password or PIN from your existing service provider if you plan on porting over your number to At&t.  A word of caution for those of you looking to port your number over: With the original iPhone we had reports of some customers not being able to receive calls for over 3 weeks after porting their number over.