As I’ve opened up my newsreader over the last week, there’s been nothing but screaming about the iPhone, whose imminent release on Friday is causing a media frenzy, and is frankly changing the crap out of AT&T’s business model.

In preparation for the release at 6pm local time Friday night, it’s my understanding that all brick and mortar Apple stores will shutdown around 2pm to prepare for crush of the masses. Not only are the Apple stores losing four hours of customer traffic, but so are the AT&T stores, as they are taking a siesta in advance of the release. Now that’s some influence on a partner! Add to that that AT&T is having to go from a somewhat blasé data offering for their customers to a pretty competitive all-you-can-eat plan for the iPhone, and the impact Apple is having on the business of AT&T is pretty obvious. It’s been a fun dance to watch.

In fact, there are already stories popping up about folks camping out to get the iPhone. In fact, there’s a guy in New York, Greg Packer, who sorta makes a name for himself by showing up for these things. The crazy thing is that he’s actually asking for PayPal donations through his site (which was put up specfically to trumpet his firstiness for the iPhone) to help make his “experience sitting in line more comfortable”. Wow. He’ll probably get enough to pay for his iPhone several times over.

I guess I’m just not smart enough to try something like that, or maybe I have more integrity, or a life, but I just can’t think like that.

And my spin on the iPhone? Well, I’ll be glad when the screaming is through. And once the moths have left the bright flame of the Apple and AT&T stores over the next week or two, I might go look at one, just to see what the hype is about. Right now though, I just don’t have a huge hankerin’ to get one of the new toys.