Thousands Queuing for Apple iPhone 3G Launching Today
11/07/2008
Thousands of people having been queuing for hours outside O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores across the UK this morning, all hoping to get their hands on an iPhone 3G.
Outside Apple's flagship store on London's Regent Street over 100 people were in the line at the 8.02am opening time.
Whilst there may be ample stocks at this store, most other stores were not expected to have high enough stock levels to meet the unprecedented demand.
QCK.com headed across the Putney store to find a line of 60 people outside the O2 store at 9am. Although the store had been open for an hour, only one customer had actually walked out the shop with the phone in his hand. A member of staff, attired in the all-black iPhone outfit, came out to address the patient customers saying they 'probably had enough phones for most people in the queue' but there were 'system problems at the O2 headquarters that were causing processing delays'.
Some of the queue were defecting to the Carphone Warehouse queue 50 metres up the road, where there were only 20 people waiting. But by 9.45, after being open for 45 minutes, the first two customers let in the door were still without a phone. The three members of staff were all looking glum-faced at their POS terminals, which unsurprisingly were suffering from the same malaise affecting their O2 neighbour and presumably most other stores around the country.
Thousands of people who tried to order the device online on Monday were also left disappointed after the O2 order site repeatedly crashed during the day.
Outside Apple's flagship store on London's Regent Street over 100 people were in the line at the 8.02am opening time.
Whilst there may be ample stocks at this store, most other stores were not expected to have high enough stock levels to meet the unprecedented demand.
QCK.com headed across the Putney store to find a line of 60 people outside the O2 store at 9am. Although the store had been open for an hour, only one customer had actually walked out the shop with the phone in his hand. A member of staff, attired in the all-black iPhone outfit, came out to address the patient customers saying they 'probably had enough phones for most people in the queue' but there were 'system problems at the O2 headquarters that were causing processing delays'.
Some of the queue were defecting to the Carphone Warehouse queue 50 metres up the road, where there were only 20 people waiting. But by 9.45, after being open for 45 minutes, the first two customers let in the door were still without a phone. The three members of staff were all looking glum-faced at their POS terminals, which unsurprisingly were suffering from the same malaise affecting their O2 neighbour and presumably most other stores around the country.
Thousands of people who tried to order the device online on Monday were also left disappointed after the O2 order site repeatedly crashed during the day.
