Australians pay up to AUD $350 to queue for iPhone Duo

Australians are offering up to AUD $350 on Airtasker for people to queue for Apple's new iPhone Duo. The listings appeared as customers gathered outside Apple's flagship Sydney store for the launch.

Some asked people to hold a place in line, while others sought taskers to collect the foldable handset on a buyer's behalf. The device is priced at close to AUD $3,500, according to details cited around the launch.

The listings show the lengths some buyers are willing to go to avoid spending hours outside a store while still trying to secure one of the first units. They also highlight how major technology launches can create short-term work for people willing to wait in line for others.

Among them was Finder Founder Jeremy Cabral, who offered AUD $250 for someone to secure his place in the queue. Other offers on the marketplace reached as high as AUD $350.

Queue market

The activity emerged around Apple's release of its first foldable smartphone, taking the company into a segment that has already attracted consumers interested in new form factors. Interest in the launch was heightened by reports of limited availability, raising the prospect of long waits for customers who did not secure a device early.

That mix of scarcity and launch-day demand has made queueing services a recurring feature of high-profile product releases. Buyers have long used Airtasker to outsource time-consuming parts of major launches and ticketed events.

"One person's idea of a nightmare, standing in a queue for hours, is someone else's opportunity to make a few hundred dollars. That's the beauty of Airtasker," said Tim Fung, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Airtasker.

He said the pattern reflects a broader exchange between people trying to save time and those looking to earn extra money from inconvenient jobs.

"People are constantly coming up with new ways to save time and make money, and product launches like this are a great example of that," Fung said.

Not new

Paying others to stand in line for Apple products is not new. Airtasker said it saw similar requests more than a decade ago during earlier launches.

"This isn't the first time we've seen people paying someone to queue for an Apple product," Fung said.

"In 2012, we had a Tasker spend five days outside an Apple Store waiting for a new iPad for someone who was keen to get their hands on it as soon as possible," he said.

The same demand can appear beyond consumer electronics. Queue-related tasks can rise around major concerts, sporting events and limited-release products, where buyers are trying to improve their chances of securing tickets or stock.

In those cases, the exchange is similar: one person pays to avoid the wait, while another takes on the time commitment for a fee. The price depends on how long the queue is expected to last, how difficult the conditions are and how urgently the buyer wants the item.

"It's the same when a major concert or event comes to town," Fung said.

"People are happy to pay someone else to do the waiting so they don't miss out," he said.

The launch-day queue for the iPhone Duo underlines how quickly a retail release can spill into the informal services economy, with a premium attached not only to the product itself but also to the time needed to obtain it.