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European iPhone Launches (Germany + UK)
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Yeah, looks like it'll be the same as in Austin -- anyone who didn't want to stand in line and still wanted an iPhone could buy it at 7pm with no waiting in line
Now, on to waiting for 150 pounds price drop and 75 pounds coupons for early adopters
I wonder how many people in the UK who really wanted an iPhone (the ones who normally would be queued up) already bought one online months ago and unlocked it.
The figure from T-Mobile of 10,000 iPhones in one day doesn't exactly sound earth-shattering. Anyone know how quickly other cellphones usually sell in Europe?
iPhone home and activated
Yey!
I was second in the queue for the Tooting Carphone Warehouse tonight. I only got there about 5:30pm, half an hour before opening time. One dude was standing there in the cold. Over the half hour as we waited, about another thirty people showed up and stood around with us. The brits are good at queuing.
Once in, the complete confusion of the carphone dudes was apparent. They had a shiny book telling them what to do, but you could see they hadn't read it beforehand. Eventually they worked it out - but the authentication gateway for the chip and pin machines was overloaded - we can guess where that came from eh?
Eventually things lightened up, and 10 mins later I was the first guy in Tooting with a legit UK iPhone.
I've just activated it and transferred my number over from Carphone to O2. Despite them saying it would take 5 days to generate the PAC code - Carphone had pre-generated PAC codes, so they gave it to me there and then in the store.
Activation process was smooth and flawless. No delays, no wait between pages beyond 10 seconds.
Kudos to Apple and Carphone. AAPL, may your stock price rise some more to make up for yesterday's ditch.
Yey!
I was second in the queue for the Tooting Carphone Warehouse tonight. I only got there about 5:30pm, half an hour before opening time. One dude was standing there in the cold. Over the half hour as we waited, about another thirty people showed up and stood around with us. The brits are good at queuing.
Once in, the complete confusion of the carphone dudes was apparent. They had a shiny book telling them what to do, but you could see they hadn't read it beforehand. Eventually they worked it out - but the authentication gateway for the chip and pin machines was overloaded - we can guess where that came from eh?
Eventually things lightened up, and 10 mins later I was the first guy in Tooting with a legit UK iPhone.
I've just activated it and transferred my number over from Carphone to O2. Despite them saying it would take 5 days to generate the PAC code - Carphone had pre-generated PAC codes, so they gave it to me there and then in the store.
Activation process was smooth and flawless. No delays, no wait between pages beyond 10 seconds.
Kudos to Apple and Carphone. AAPL, may your stock price rise some more to make up for yesterday's ditch.
Don't worry, Canadians haven't got it yet...
I guess it has something to do with the Canadian dollar
While I was standing there, there were people walking past noticing the queue and seeing what was going on and all of them didn't even realise it was being released today. One guy just shouted "Oh iPhone, it's today"! He also said he'll come back next week for one.
Personally I don't think people are in a rush over here.
I'm not excited about it, I was in January though when I didn't know the contract terms. My friend even has an iPod touch and while I was impressed I was quickly bored of it even after he jailbroke it and showed me the "iTouch dock" and Super Mario Brothers.
The Carphone Warehouse crew in Swansea were lucky, they only had 3 people in the store at 6pm, it looked like they were on the ball anyway.
Its always fun to hear about how other countries are great at line formation. Now if only the 300 million in this country got a clue a learned to do the same. Its a good reason to stop taking the bus because people cram and make a mad dash to the door.
I've just got back from the Merry Hill Centre, where there are two Carphone Warehouse stores and an O2 store inside the shopping mall.
I got there at 5:50 and there were 3 people waiting outside the first CW shop. I got down by the second CW and the O2 store just before 6:00 and there were 4 outside CW and about 20 waiting at O2, which opened a little earlier than advertised.
I carried on with my shopping and walked past again 20 minutes later and the CW store was fairly quiet. The O2 shop was busy though, they were selling quite steady and I couldn't get near the display iPhones. They had free mufffins and bottled water too.
The other CW store was empty, so I went in and had a play with one of the phones for 5 minutes and left it with MacRumors in the bookmarks.
I got there at 5:50 and there were 3 people waiting outside the first CW shop. I got down by the second CW and the O2 store just before 6:00 and there were 4 outside CW and about 20 waiting at O2, which opened a little earlier than advertised.
I carried on with my shopping and walked past again 20 minutes later and the CW store was fairly quiet. The O2 shop was busy though, they were selling quite steady and I couldn't get near the display iPhones. They had free mufffins and bottled water too.
The other CW store was empty, so I went in and had a play with one of the phones for 5 minutes and left it with MacRumors in the bookmarks.
So - the big question:
Would it've been smarter to have queued at 1802hrs tonight in the UK- forking out £269 quid plus 18 x £35 (minimum) monthly talk tariff
Or .. smarter to wait til tomorrow morning to do ... exactly the same thing?.
Hmmm .. lets think.
I reckon the sane option would be: to do neither.
No. Actually, the smartest option is to put the combined total of what it will cost to run this overpriced, overhyped, overpriced novelty-gadget (IE:£900) towards a brand new MacBook. And impress the same gullible mates with that instead. Not only will the resale value get you a good £600 back if you flog it in 18 months hence and you can smirk furiously right now when you realise the second hand value of a 1st Generation iPhone come mid 2009 will be about £150 if that.
So lets do the maths here:
iPhone + Astronomical O2 Contract = £900 with a total loss of £750 at least.
MacBook for the same money and a loss of £300 or less ...
Bit of a no brainer as our Transatlantic cousins might say, Mildred.
Still - logic and common sense never comes into it when the heart take over from the head decisionwise.
However, may I suggest to other potential UK buyers to buy a packet of Airwaves gum and chew on a coupla sticks to help clear your head before purchasing what will be last years `must have product of 2007' come January 2008.
Mmmmm Macbook. Funny, you always said it was too much of a luxury to afford. Now - all this time - maybe it wasnt . Ah'll sithee at the (ahem) ironically-named `Genius' counter then shall I?
.
Would it've been smarter to have queued at 1802hrs tonight in the UK- forking out £269 quid plus 18 x £35 (minimum) monthly talk tariff
Or .. smarter to wait til tomorrow morning to do ... exactly the same thing?.
Hmmm .. lets think.
I reckon the sane option would be: to do neither.
No. Actually, the smartest option is to put the combined total of what it will cost to run this overpriced, overhyped, overpriced novelty-gadget (IE:£900) towards a brand new MacBook. And impress the same gullible mates with that instead. Not only will the resale value get you a good £600 back if you flog it in 18 months hence and you can smirk furiously right now when you realise the second hand value of a 1st Generation iPhone come mid 2009 will be about £150 if that.
So lets do the maths here:
iPhone + Astronomical O2 Contract = £900 with a total loss of £750 at least.
MacBook for the same money and a loss of £300 or less ...
Bit of a no brainer as our Transatlantic cousins might say, Mildred.
Still - logic and common sense never comes into it when the heart take over from the head decisionwise.
However, may I suggest to other potential UK buyers to buy a packet of Airwaves gum and chew on a coupla sticks to help clear your head before purchasing what will be last years `must have product of 2007' come January 2008.
Mmmmm Macbook. Funny, you always said it was too much of a luxury to afford. Now - all this time - maybe it wasnt . Ah'll sithee at the (ahem) ironically-named `Genius' counter then shall I?
.
the beginning . . .
and finally the other countries get the blessed iphone. this is how jobs will meet his 10 million iphone mark. how many will be sold globally before christmas?!
and finally the other countries get the blessed iphone. this is how jobs will meet his 10 million iphone mark. how many will be sold globally before christmas?!
http://gallery.mac.com/martinirwin#100074&view=mosaic&sel=0
theres me third guy sitting down! awesome event made good buy the people in the q!
Awesome phone i am loving it
theres me third guy sitting down! awesome event made good buy the people in the q!
Awesome phone i am loving it
Seeing the numbers sold so far, Steve's mouth must be watering
Hopefully he doesn't drop the prices on the iphone again two months from now
*cough cough*
Also I keep hearing Canadians wanting their share of the iphone madness, has there been no plans AT ALL to release to our little brothers up north?
Hopefully he doesn't drop the prices on the iphone again two months from now
*cough cough*
Also I keep hearing Canadians wanting their share of the iphone madness, has there been no plans AT ALL to release to our little brothers up north?
Not that good i think, the stock tanked to 170 today. We don't have that many free wifi, the touch is already for sale and we always had top tech cellphones to begin with.
And i won't be getting one because off the ridiculous monthly rates, i'l probably just settle with the Touch.
Taken with my iPhone
I wanna get on the front page for once
mmmm.... wondering why the Disney store is next to the Apple store.... mmmm
These pix remind me of the US launch - good fun!
Glad other countries can finally start playing.
Enjoy!
Glad other countries can finally start playing.
Enjoy!
I guess no one learned from the U.S. launch that you can wait a week after the release and just walk in and buy an iPhone without any hassles of waiting on a line for hours and hours. Europeans aren't so smart.
No need to wait a week, I could have got one tonight without any bother. The Carphone Warehouse I went into at 6:30 was almost empty.
iPhone: UK dictionary and keyboard is set to US by default
Interesting tech note:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306955
Issue or symptom
When first activating an iPhone purchased in the UK (or using iTunes to restore a UK iPhone to the factory settings), the iPhone is configured for the US English keyboard and dictionary. Certain keys such as the £ key may not be where you may expect, and typing in a word may result in US English spelling suggestion.
Products affected
* iPhone purchased in the UK
* iTunes 7.5 or later (required to activate iPhone purchased in the UK)
* iPhone Software 1.1.2
Solution
After activating for the first time (or restoring), choose Settings > International > Keyboards and set English (UK) to "On."
Interesting tech note:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306955
Issue or symptom
When first activating an iPhone purchased in the UK (or using iTunes to restore a UK iPhone to the factory settings), the iPhone is configured for the US English keyboard and dictionary. Certain keys such as the £ key may not be where you may expect, and typing in a word may result in US English spelling suggestion.
Products affected
* iPhone purchased in the UK
* iTunes 7.5 or later (required to activate iPhone purchased in the UK)
* iPhone Software 1.1.2
Solution
After activating for the first time (or restoring), choose Settings > International > Keyboards and set English (UK) to "On."