“On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs took out his iPhone and dialed a Starbucks in San Francisco. ‘Good morning,’ answered the polite voice of employee Ying Hang ‘Hannah’ Zhang. ‘How may I help you?'” Austin Carr reports for Fast Company. “‘Yes, I’d like to order 4,000 lattes to go, please,’ Jobs said, grinning. ‘No, just kidding. Wrong number. Goodbye!'”
“As Jobs hung up, a large crowd in front of him erupted in laughter. That’s because this wasn’t some private prank call. Jobs was on stage at the Moscone Center, where he had just unveiled the iPhone to the world,” Carr reports. “His call to the Starbucks that day was the first real public phone call made from an iPhone in history… For Starbucks employee Zhang, there was no way of knowing a smartphone revolution was on the horizon. To her that day six years ago, it was just another prank phone call. Little did she know it was from Steve Jobs.”
Carr reports, “With help from Starbucks, Fast Company was able to track down Zhang, a soft-spoken barista who goes by ‘Hannah.’ Sincere and sweet, Hannah has been working at the same Starbucks for more than a half-decade… Funny enough, now orders for 4,000 lattes are more common, thanks to the endless droves of Apple fanboys still wanting to partake in some aspect of Jobs’s legacy. ‘Before him, no [we never received such an order],’ Hannah says. ‘After he made the call, everyone copied him, prank calling our store and ordering thousands of lattes–to this day!'”
Read more in the full article here.
Steve Jobs to Starbucks: 4,000 lattes to go please. Haha, only joking with ya.
Judge Lucy Koh to Apple: $1 billion damages awarded. Haha, only joking with ya.
“for more than a half-decade…” lol, ya mean five years?
January 7, 2007 from March 4, 2013 is over six years anyway.
I must have watched that presentation a thousand times. It’s what comforted me during those agonizing six months before the first iDay on June 29, 2007. I’ve never lusted for anything the way I wanted that iPhone.
I didn’t lust, but I knew I’ld get one for a single reason.
I knew it would work just like Steve said. That was enough.
This is good to hear. I thought I was the only one who thought he was incredibly witty, only to discover later I was only half right.