Overnight queues for iPhones

Last Modified: 09 Nov 2007
By: Benjamin Cohen

Apple have already shifted almost 1.5 million iPhones in the US, now they are hoping to repeat that success here.

The iPhone combines the functions of a normal mobile, albeit with a touch sensitive handset, along with an mp3 player and an internet browser.

Enthusiastic fans queued all night outside the Apple store in London to get their hands on the gadget as soon as it goes on sale but reviewers say the iPhone's internet connection is slow and you can't send multimedia messages.

Background:

Carphone Warehouse, O2 and Apple are braced for a surge when the multi-purpose device goes on sale at 6.02pm

It is tipped to be the biggest selling Christmas technology gift, despite some criticism of its £269 price tag.

Customers will only be able to make calls on the O2 network, and they have to sign an 18-month contract on tariffs of £35, £45 or £55 per month.

But Apple vice president of iPod and iPhone product marketing Greg Joswiak shrugged off reports that hackers would try to unlock the iPhone from the O2 network.

He said: "I think the hacking goes just as a testament to how much people desire this."

The device combines a touch-sensitive mobile phone handset with a built-in iPod media player and a wireless internet browser.

Describing the iPhone's appeal as he waited in the rain, Manchester Metropolitan University computer studies student Graham Gilbert, 22, said: "It is amazing. I just like the fact that it brings everything I carry with me into one device. I don't have to think - 'have I remembered my iPod?"'

Nik Fletcher from Petersfield in Hampshire said: "People talk about the cult of Mac. They have a cult and there is a very loyal following."

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said: "It is a really important day not just for Apple but actually for the phone industry. I think it will move people's perceptions of what a mobile phone is a long way forward."

But sales will initially be limited to two iPhones per person.

Apple sold 1.4 million units in 74 days when the iPhone was launched in America in June.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, earlier said he wanted 10 million iPhones to be sold globally during 2008.