IT glitch delays the launch of Apple's new iPhone
Updated on 11 July 2008
Customers have to queue as computer problems delay today's launch of Apple's new iPhone
Britain was just one of 22 countries where the phone went on sale for the first time this morning.
There are reports of huge interest in the new product, which is cheaper and offers a faster internet connection than its predecessor.
But customers wanting to buy the new handset queued for up to 13 hours this morning, as computer problems marred its usually high-profile launch.
Not all the people who have queued up today will get their phone. O2 say they have run out of the top model at the London, Oxford Street store. And the launch has been hit by technical problems across the country.
An in-store registration is necessary because O2 is subsidising the iPhone in order to boost sales. O2 paid £4bn for it's 3G license in 2000.
Like all of the other networks it paid so much because there was a belief that features such as video phone calls would take off. But they didn't.
One of the big hits in 3G is not a phone a device called a dongle. From £10 a month you get pretty fast broadband out and about, wherever there's a 3G mast nearby, 30,000 of these are being sold in the UK every week.
If the new iPhone takes off, it might increase the take up of 3G further. But next wave of mobile technology, promising even faster internet on the move, call it 4G, is already on the horizon.
