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iPhone Crowds in the UK? Don’t believe the hype! [PICS]

dialaphone.co.uk — As iPhone fever grips the country, we thought we’d bring you pictures of the day as the drama unfolds!

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 10, 2007

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  • lkv87, on 11/11/2007, -7/+65The upcoming iPhone launches around the world will not generate the crowds that the US launch did, because a lot of people nerdy enough to line up already have a hacked iPhone. I went to the leopard launch here in Australia and the guys in front and behind me had an iPhone as do I; we are the type of people that 'would' have lined up for the iPhone when it finally makes its way downunder.
    Thats my 2 cents anyway.
  • dagamer34, on 11/11/2007, -18/+73If I see another ***** WORDPRESS BLOG, I'LL GO BALLISTIC.
  • Adrianc333, on 11/13/2007, -15/+52Like i and many others said a while ago... The iPhone won't take off in the UK.

    It's not the type of device we want.
    We are fine with our Sony Ericsson's and Samsungs.
  • troydoogle7, on 11/11/2007, -5/+41everyone who wanted an iphone... has got one already... We aren't going to pay near enough double the price, when one can get the usa version cheaper with next delivery and unlocked..

    plus I bet apple drops the price in 2 months and gives a credit!
  • RobRobRob, on 11/12/2007, -17/+47Good story! Surprisingly, this piece of digg-bait actually contains some real investigative journalism. Nice work by dialaphone.co.uk
  • ftwn00b, on 11/13/2007, -15/+44it's because people in europe arent a bunch of morons and materialistic people like americans.
  • parbjohal, on 11/12/2007, -0/+25I think the iPhone is an incredible device - when it comes to the multi-touchscreen, the interface and web rendering...

    But as a competitor to other devices available in the UK market it's horrendously flawed. No MMS?! No video capture?! 2 megapixel camera?! and no 3G?!.... Then there's the ringtones, bluetooth transfer of images etc...

    Those things might be forgivable if the data plans were actually worthwhile - For the same £35 of the lowest tariff from O2 you can get more minutes, more texts with a more fully featured device from O2! And that's before you start shopping around.

    Last week I took delivery of the new LG Viewty which I got for free, for £35pm, 800 minutes, 200 texts and unlimited landline calls - and its fantastic... As a user of Apple products for nearly 15 years - I'll happily wait for iPhone V.2 - when hopefully Apple will really start 'out-featuring' other manufacturers.
  • Zero2aHero, on 11/12/2007, -13/+35Dude...

    Going to a couple of different stores and taking pictures is not investigative journalism. If this is what passes as investigative journalism then the media is failing.
  • pintomp3, on 11/11/2007, -2/+24sadly, it's a lot more investigative than most of the media.
  • sevn, on 11/10/2007, -1/+22The hype was too much for WordPress.
    Seriously people install the cache plugin.
  • podgey22, on 11/13/2007, -2/+22And our Nokias thank-you-very-much!

    *hugs his N95*
  • HenvY, on 11/11/2007, -6/+25You're right, i'm sure most casual customers at carphone warehouse are looking to pay £250 for a handset that they then have to pay £35 a month (minimum)for, for a year when right next to that iphone there'll be a N95 for free wtih a far better contract. Lets not forget, with the iphone £35 p/m contract you get 200 free texts and 200mins calls. 200! I mean WTF, how will that appeal to anybody when with any other phone for the same price you'd get over 5 times that in terms of texts and minutes. The iphone might be a cool gadget, but it's a victim of botched marketing and botched research.
  • techmonk, on 11/11/2007, -3/+21mirror? ***** wordpress.
  • stukdog, on 11/11/2007, -1/+19http://72.14.253.104/search?hs=sUq&hl=en&lr=&c2cof ...
  • voetsjoeba, on 11/11/2007, -0/+18You have no idea what WordPress is do you?
  • RetepNamenots, on 11/11/2007, -0/+16I think Apple went seriously wrong with their pricing plans. You can get virtually every great phone here in the UK for 'free', with about a £30 contract minimum over 12 months... Now that the touch is out as well... and as AcidQueen said anyone who really wanted one (eg. Hardcore Apple fans) would have got one by now.
  • mrblack, on 11/12/2007, -1/+16does anybody else find it a bit odd that dail-a-phone, a mobile phone selling website and phone service, would post this. Independent journalism aye?
  • zabouth, on 11/12/2007, -1/+15Like I said at the very Start no 3G no buy. Its that simple, the UK has a fantastic 3G network and almost all phones here are 3G now so why downgrade to edge, That most people in the UK have never hard of.
  • CharlesDance, on 11/12/2007, -11/+24You don't speak for all of us, but yeah the iPhone is bollocks.
  • jazh, on 11/12/2007, -0/+12Edge doesn't even exist in the north of england.
  • JTtheXIII, on 11/10/2007, -1/+13(Disclaimer: I did NOT get an iPhone yesterday) Actually, that story is false. First at 6:02 it was dark so all pictures in the daylight only tell there was no one queuing hours before the launch, which makes perfect sense, since all the fanboys would go to proper apple stores. Shortly before 6, when I walked past the stores in camden, both O2 stores and Carphone Warehouse actually had queues of more than 20 people each. So please use more accurate evidence than pictures taken 5 hours before. Although I'm sure not all stores had queues simply because there are so many O2 and Carphone warehouse around...
  • diggface5000, on 11/11/2007, -2/+13This is not surprising at all. Most of the nice phones on the phone manufacturers' websites are not available with any US carrier, but they are in the UK/the rest of Europe. If we had as many choices here (without paying top dollar for unlocked phones online), I'm pretty sure the iPhone would have had much less hype. As it stands, most people I know have either a RAZR or LG Chocolate.
  • sonycam, on 11/12/2007, -0/+10It's not only the fact that it's been available unlocked from the US for months, but the contract is piss poor (£35/$70 a month for 200 minutes? Most people use that in less than a week), plus it's 2G. I will probably get the 3G one next year if they have a reasonable contract, otherwise I'll just unlock it.
  • JohnP, on 11/10/2007, -3/+13A few issues here, the phone wasnt launched until the EVENING so pictures taken at 3pm are not representative of anything. Then, there are something like 1000 carphone warehouse stores in the UK, so why would the there be crowds? If carphone warehouse were giving away free blowjobs, they have enough stores to equal the demand into pockets of 20 or so people at one time.

    Another reason this is BS: There were queues outside the 02 and carphone stores where i live.

    burried
  • HappyScrappy, on 11/12/2007, -3/+13How about it only has EDGE and GPRS, both of which are balls slow and EDGE only exists in a small portion of the country?
  • Bobbler, on 11/12/2007, -1/+11Eh?
    Surely the lines should be longer if there are less stores, more people queueing outside the few stores that there are?
    Also as someone not really interested in the phone at all, I knew it was going to be at CPW too, and there are something like 3 or 4 of those stores on every highstreet in the UK which is more Apple stores than you find in most of the malls I have ever visited while in the USA.
    Don't try making excuses for them, no one was chomping at the bit to pay £250 for the phone on a ripoff contract which does away with MMS, decent camera, 3G (battery life my arse Apple) etc etc etc.
  • Godlesswanderer, on 11/10/2007, -1/+10Nevermind, someone's already posted the Google Cache link. Digg me down.
  • d1a1s1, on 11/11/2007, -1/+10If I see another double post Ill go...dammit, Im going ballistic!
  • TimRogers, on 11/10/2007, -0/+8I've been down at Apple Store Regent Street today and it was packed - there were people queueing to try out an iPhone.
  • chingy1788, on 11/11/2007, -2/+10reminds me of the PS3 in Australia
    all major stores were "packed" with excited PS3 buyers
  • luchid, on 11/11/2007, -1/+9Wordpress is not a host, it's a CMS, you idiot. It's their hosting company that sucks balls.
  • tizz66, on 11/10/2007, -0/+7Dunno, I was in town today and thought I'd go into the o2 shop to have a look at the iPhone, and I couldn't get near it. It was the same story at all three places selling it (two o2 shops, and a Carphonewarehouse)
  • ccaazz, on 11/12/2007, -1/+8its pricing is ridiculously high for what it is, i cba to do the exact maths but in us terms it would be equivalent to maybe $1400 (roughly £700) per year i think - thats crazy! - most uk contract phones come free anyway, and the lack of 3g means its crippled.

    just checking on o2's website now, i can get a nokia n95, with a 5 megapixel camera, 8 gigs storage (in a micro sd card form included), wifi, 3g, and gps, all for (yes i sound like an advert here i know!) - £199.99 on £25 per month or free for £50 per month, compare that to the iphone and you will see why most sensible uk consumers won't be rushing out to get one - its price is too high, and its features are underwhelming compared to most phones in its chosen price bracket.
  • jmbillings, on 11/13/2007, -3/+10Not people with half a brain. I just got an SE P1, it can do loads more than the iphone and is cheaper. Sure the interface isn't so flashy, but that really is the only thing the iPhone has going for it. It really is just a fashion statement, no more. If people admit to buying it because it looks cool then so be it, but I'm bored of the ***** information surrounding it. Even the BBC refer to it as "internet enabled" as if that's something new... the K750 I had over 2 years ago was "internet enabled" with opera mini for ***** sake.
  • inactive, on 11/11/2007, -1/+8It still happens with Harry Potter... even to us Brits.
  • Godlesswanderer, on 11/10/2007, -1/+8At that price I'm sure everyone's sticking with the phone they already have.
    I have a Sony Ericsson K800i, I'm paying £30 for £180 allowance per month (900 minutes or 1800 texts) and I got the phone for free with the contract. Sure, it doesn't have a touch screen but since when have I needed a touch screen on a phone? I'm perfectly happy with buttons.
  • Jimmyy, on 11/11/2007, -7/+13kudos to the British for not buying crap =)
  • Godlesswanderer, on 11/10/2007, -0/+6The only blogs that Wordpress hosts is blogs on Wordpress.com and those always stay up if they've been dugg.
  • zabouth, on 11/11/2007, -0/+6I feel proud to be British again this makes up for the whole princess Diana flowers incident.
  • ikoul, on 11/11/2007, -2/+7Overhyped book, overhyped phone. Same thing.
  • kriminalintent, on 11/10/2007, -0/+5that is only a view of one location. You will never get large crowds at every store. some locations are smaller then others.
    http://flickr.com/search/?q=uk+iphone
  • jads, on 11/10/2007, -0/+5sounds like a case of sour grapes. I bet if they were able to sell the iPhone then the story would be completely different...
  • Shiner6, on 11/10/2007, -1/+6Down already?
  • fred5678, on 11/10/2007, -1/+6I went down to the Regent Street Apple Store at just before 6pm, and by then the queue was pretty long... it stretched down to the corner, into Hanover Street and turned again into St George Street. I would guess that would be quite a few hundred people. At 6.02pm there was a lot of cheering as people were allowed in, and soon after extra police arrived to try and keep the crowds outside the store from blocking the road. By 7pm things had calmed down again, and the queue was down to about 20-30 people.
  • inactive, on 11/10/2007, -2/+7how miserable does one have to be to go through a torture for a ***** phone.
  • manicleek, on 11/12/2007, -1/+5But it is better than an iPhone
  • richardhenry, on 11/12/2007, -0/+4WTF? They took a photo of the Regent Street store at about 11am it looks like. There was a queue of probably 200+ people by 6pm, the line stretched all the way down to St George Street two blocks away. The Trafford Centre also had rather incredible queues, looks like 50 or so people there, possible more.

    http://gallery.mac.com/ajanssens/100062/0911200723 ...

    Investigative journalism?? The only photo they had at launch time was of a back-street Carphone Warehouse, the store that we all know and love. Sarcasm.

    Rich
  • naonao, on 11/12/2007, -5/+9Not true at all, the amount of people I know who hated Apple stuff before the iPhone and are buying one and flinging away their Sony Ericcsons is staggering.
  • MrSprout, on 11/10/2007, -0/+4The £35 a month contract, like the iPhone, is geared more towards internet use. For anyone who uses the web extensively the unlimited data included in the contract is a great deal (for the UK anyway). I'm suprised people are complaining about the texts in this plan, if they're looking to buy a device just to text and call others they could do a lot better than the iPhone.

    I guess it all just boils down to the Apple logo on the back. :)
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