UK iPhone - disappointing launch?

[benfilan]

just read this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/11/iphone_uk_flop/
Doesn't sound to great, but to be honest I saw people queueing (not that many tho) and thats a pretty rare thing in the UK.

 

[Project]

The photos that Dial A Phone took were at 3pm at Carphone Warehouse locations. Hardly a fair way to deem the success or not of the launch.

Dial A Phone are also competitors of CPW... so you have to take what they say with a pinch of salt. Especially when they say stuff like this

Nick also posits the subversive idea that the "queue" that formed outside Apple's flagship shop on London's Regent Street may be synthetic.

Seeing as I personally know somebody from the first 4 people at Regent St, I can assure you that it was not an Apple plant. And I am sure those who queued early on who are Mac Rumors members can vouch for their own validity.

What I do know is that all of the Apple stores had big queues. O2/CPW much less so. But that is what happened in the States.

 

[DogcowUK]

I'd have to agree. I turned up at the Birkenhead o2 store at 5pm and queued with 5-10 punters plus around 5 o2 staff until 6.02pm. We nearly had a member of staff EACH

I left pretty quickly after the o2 staff took 5 minutes figuring out how to ring the iPhone through the tills but I'd guess they had a very very quiet night. As for the Carphone Warehouse Store 2 minutes walk away... well you can guess how many people went there...

 

[memesmith]

Lets be honest, we were never expecting the iPhone to have the same impact here as in the US, even if we personally lusted after one. All the reasons, the iPhone hated have been giving for it to flop are mainly valid points. They are only wrong in thinking it is going to be a flop. It will do OK, and that's all Apple needs, were not a major market after all.

The PR machine did the job it planned, to get column inches in the press, not to get queues outside shops.

Never the less, when i strolled down to my local O2 shop in a sleepy rural town at 6pm, there was a queue, which surprised me! And the smaller queue at the CPW down the road. I joined the queue, just for the fun of it, and it took 15 minutes or so to get into the shop. I didn't buy a phone though, just played with it. Mine is coming to me as a gift very soon.

 

[masteroflondon]

Well, I saw a queue. I was in it. But then I was there before the launch, this guy quotes someone turning up an hour afterwards! It was well organised so everyone had a good experience. So by the time he turns up, they've gone home to enjoy the phone. I predict the next football world cup will be a flop. I'll go along the day after and check how many people are there.

The UK launch has also occurred after they had plenty of time to build up stocks. And I don't think subsequent launches will ever get the interest of a world first one.

I think this guy is partly right. Journalists like him may have poor judgement about how these things will go, but most of the people on this forum seemed to me to anticipate exactly what transpired, plenty of interest met with with plenty of stock.

 

[fnord08]

In terms of whether the iPhone will or won't be a flop here surely what really counts is what the people who went out and bought it then start tell their friends/familys etc.

I will definitely recommend it to the people I know because I'm very impressed with the phone - could not careless whether or not there was a que to get it.

What surprises is me is that I can easily see myself recommending the iPhone to less tech savy people (i.e. retired parents) because it is so clear and simple, as well as the people who love gadgets.

But I think what will to its future is if apple is quick to update the system to include things like proper not syncing etc.

 

[Cloudane]

Told you the iTouch would cannibalise sales I'm one of the many who went for the "bargain" and "best of both worlds" by keeping my free n73 on a very decent tariff and the Touch. If they'd not already released the Touch, I would've bought an iPhone straight away.

And like I said in the beginning, not having it 3G is a major, major stupid thing to do here. Now, I've actually seen Edge since, and I'm impressed - they actually have coverage here already (even though there's very little in the way of 3G, the rollout of which seems to have stagnated) and it's of a very reasonable speed. It's probably the ideal winner, it's a bit of a VHS (Edge) vs. Betamax (3G) sort of scenario, 3G being better but if EDGE is 10x easier (and thus 10x quicker) to roll out and "almost as good" then it'll win.

However, although it's technically better, nobody knows what EDGE is. Most people have heard of 3G, but as a geek even *I* didn't really know what EDGE was until the iPhone came along.

FWIW I was in a queue (of 10 people at its peak) but it was my dad buying, not me. I'm waiting for the next gen, as I'm sure many other Brits are. Many will be waiting for 3G, personally I'm waiting for a bigger capacity i.e. 16GB or better.

 

[TonyHoyle]

What surprises is me is that I can easily see myself recommending the iPhone to less tech savy people (i.e. retired parents) because it is so clear and simple, as well as the people who love gadgets.

Not really.. try handing the phone to someone who's not used one and get them to send a text. I did this yesterday.

1. He pressed 'SMS' - do far so good.
2. Screen comes up blank. He looks confused, hands phone back to me. I know that the text screen takes 10-15 seconds to come up fully but for a new user it's confusing. Hand it back to him.
3. He still doesn't know what to do. 'New message' icon is *not* clear.. it needs to be bigger and more obvious. I had to point it out to him.
4. Message comes up but *keypad is in alphabetic mode* (BUG I think - it makes no sense.. should be the phone keypad). By this time he's really frustrated and gives up.

Maybe I picked the worst app... I'm fairly convinced the SMS app was released to a deadline so is half finished anyway. OTOH I wouldn't even consider giving such a phone to my mother for example.

 

[fnord08]

Not really.. try handing the phone to someone who's not used one and get them to send a text. I did this yesterday.

1. He pressed 'SMS' - do far so good.
2. Screen comes up blank. He looks confused, hands phone back to me. I know that the text screen takes 10-15 seconds to come up fully but for a new user it's confusing. Hand it back to him.
3. He still doesn't know what to do. 'New message' icon is *not* clear.. it needs to be bigger and more obvious. I had to point it out to him.
4. Message comes up but *keypad is in alphabetic mode* (BUG I think - it makes no sense.. should be the phone keypad). By this time he's really frustrated and gives up.

Maybe I picked the worst app... I'm fairly convinced the SMS app was released to a deadline so is half finished anyway. OTOH I wouldn't even consider giving such a phone to my mother for example.

Okay I'm gonna test it on an OAP and see what happens. Of course I will need to explain it to them and walk then through the menus etc, but I'm still pretty sure that it will be faster than when I have had to do this with various other phones in the past. I also think that an advantage of the iPhone is that everything is pretty open and on the screen, where as with other phones there are many more menus and sub menus and sub sub menus...

But perhaps my own enjoyment of the phone is giving me rose colour spectacles...

 

[baabaa90]

There is also the fact that 1,300 outlets had the phone in stock. Any small to medium town would have an O2 and a Carphone Warehouse outlet. That's a lot of places to buy one in a smallish country - divide it out and you're not going to get a lot of queues.

I'm certain that both the iPhone and the Touch are going to be on a lot of Christmas Lists. I reckon that there will be a gradual uptick in demand over the next 6 weeks.

 

[benfilan]

I'd have to agree. I turned up at the Birkenhead o2 store at 5pm and queued with 5-10 punters plus around 5 o2 staff until 6.02pm. We nearly had a member of staff EACH

I left pretty quickly after the o2 staff took 5 minutes figuring out how to ring the iPhone through the tills but I'd guess they had a very very quiet night. As for the Carphone Warehouse Store 2 minutes walk away... well you can guess how many people went there...

exactly! in belfast there are two O2 stores and three carphone warehouses within spitting distance of each other, ALL open for launch. a bit over the top I think.

 

[The Phazer]

Baffling why the article just conveniently "forgets" about Regent Street...

There's been some real rubbish on the Register recently. Particular from that author.

Phazer

 

[Leemo]

I think it's far too soon to say if it's a 'disappointing' launch or not. There were over 30 people queueing at my local Carphone Warehouse (relatively small store in a smallish town) and more arrived after we'd been let in at 6pm.

Went there today with my boyfriend to get him a case for his, and despite the card problems (they were having problems with chip and pin on the night, apparently that was widespread with Carphone!) they sold over 60 of them, which they were chuffed with. Sales had been good over the weekend as well.

I'm really over the moon with it - was prepared to be disappointed after all the hype, but it suits me perfectly. The headset is great too!

 

[MattDell]

For the record, The Register is an extremely Anti-Mac web site. I don't believe anything those people write.


-Matt

 

[BuxtonUK]

Greatest thing that no-ones mentioned yet is the fact all those photos are clearly in daylight and considering the sun sets at 4:10pm currently, those photos were taken pretty early on as someone did mention.

Anyway, Dial @ Phone are a bag of wank ¦D

 

[notsofatjames]

I was all on my own at carphone warehouse at quarter to 6 on friday. Wasnt so bad though, cos i got quite chatty with the staff when the systems went down and I had to wait for another half hour before I could leave. At least the staff were friendly and i got to play with their iPhones.

 

[yetanotherdave]

For the record, The Register is an extremely Anti-Mac web site. I don't believe anything those people write.


-Matt

I don't know where you get that from, I think they are one of the fairer rech site out there with one of the most platform agnostic stances around. Mac's aren't perfect, and they'll point that out but they also praise the good stuff.

 

[MacsAttack]

Baffling why the article just conveniently "forgets" about Regent Street...

There's been some real rubbish on the Register recently. Particular from that author.

Phazer

They have an axe to grind with Apple since Apple stopped treating them as serious journalists... errr.... because their infantile behavior demonstrated they were not really journalists. Since then they have been very Apple-hate.

Guess they are narked because they didn't get a free iPhone too.

I didn't buy an iPhone over the week-end, but I am leaning towards the idea. Reasons why I didn't...

1. The cheque I got for some free-lance work has not cleared yet and I want it to be in the bank before I make any plans.

2. I'm on call over the week-end - so I can't get away anyway (well I could - if I want to risk it, but the extra money I get would cover the contract - so I don't want to be taken off the rooter)

3. I'm anticipating people having problems activating their phones - so I'll give it a week or so for the wrinkles to be worked out of the system while I make up my mind.

Unlike many, I am unencumbered by an existing contract. I don't have a mobile phone in fact. Never have. But now Apple have delivered a device that suites my needs in a mobile communications device (don't care squat about texting or a camera - its the e-mail and web that I'm after).

I was going to buy a Touch (but at the time they were kind of hard to get hold of so I though I'd wait and see what happens with the iPhone) - but it looks like I'll need a phone too in the future. Everybody has to make up their own mind - but the iPhone looks like it could be the thing for me.

I think a lot of people are holding off buying as it will probably be "the" Christmas present (along with the other iPods). Second week of November was probably not the time to launch if they wanted maximum impact "on the day". The interesting numbers will be how many have sold by the end of January.

 

[MacsAttack]

I don't know where you get that from, I think they are one of the fairer rech site out there with one of the most platform agnostic stances around. Mac's aren't perfect, and they'll point that out but they also praise the good stuff.

They used to be quite good. But they really have gone down the toilet the last two years.

 

[snapper07]

Greatest thing that no-ones mentioned yet is the fact all those photos are clearly in daylight and considering the sun sets at 4:10pm currently, those photos were taken pretty early on as someone did mention.

Anyway, Dial @ Phone are a bag of wank ¦D

took the words right out of my mouth they could have been taken days b4!!

i though it went well the launch day i would have been annoyed if i had to queue for hours!
People moan when there's a big wait not enough stock etc and now retailers have listened to the customer and get enough stock to go round and now people are saying they did not run out there for there not popular same happened for the ps3.
they can't win!!

 

[TurboSC]

Not really.. try handing the phone to someone who's not used one and get them to send a text. I did this yesterday.

1. He pressed 'SMS' - do far so good.
2. Screen comes up blank. He looks confused, hands phone back to me. I know that the text screen takes 10-15 seconds to come up fully but for a new user it's confusing. Hand it back to him.
3. He still doesn't know what to do. 'New message' icon is *not* clear.. it needs to be bigger and more obvious. I had to point it out to him.
4. Message comes up but *keypad is in alphabetic mode* (BUG I think - it makes no sense.. should be the phone keypad). By this time he's really frustrated and gives up.

Maybe I picked the worst app... I'm fairly convinced the SMS app was released to a deadline so is half finished anyway. OTOH I wouldn't even consider giving such a phone to my mother for example.

Don't blame the app, blame your friend. The phone was built around the appeal and understanding of the majority.

 

[The Phazer]

They have an axe to grind with Apple since Apple stopped treating them as serious journalists... errr.... because their infantile behavior demonstrated they were not really journalists. Since then they have been very Apple-hate.

Yep. They keep claiming the same about the BBC too - claiming that it's because the Register says nasty things about them. But the Daily Mail still get invited, and they say much worse things.

The Register don't get invited places because they use words like "freetards" in their headlines. It just makes them look juvenille and amatuerish.

Phazer

 

[Stampyhead]

Not really.. try handing the phone to someone who's not used one and get them to send a text. I did this yesterday.

1. He pressed 'SMS' - do far so good.
2. Screen comes up blank. He looks confused, hands phone back to me. I know that the text screen takes 10-15 seconds to come up fully but for a new user it's confusing. Hand it back to him.
3. He still doesn't know what to do. 'New message' icon is *not* clear.. it needs to be bigger and more obvious. I had to point it out to him.
4. Message comes up but *keypad is in alphabetic mode* (BUG I think - it makes no sense.. should be the phone keypad). By this time he's really frustrated and gives up.

Maybe I picked the worst app... I'm fairly convinced the SMS app was released to a deadline so is half finished anyway. OTOH I wouldn't even consider giving such a phone to my mother for example.

Sorry, but I think you need smarter friends. Everyone I know who has used an iPhone (including myself and my 13 year old niece) figured out how the SMS worked right away the first time they tried it. Sure it's a little different, but it's still intuitive, IMO.

 

[TonyHoyle]

Don't blame the app, blame your friend. The phone was built around the appeal and understanding of the majority.

He was supposted to know that the odd square thing in the corner was 'new message?'? I didn't know it myself the first time... had to poke around the screen for a bit to work out what the hell was going on. That's just faulty UI design. Also selecting the wrong keyboard when you're on the To: line is just a bug that needs fixing.

Heck if it had been just a text button marked 'Send' it might have made more sense, but a square with a bit missing? On what planet is that supposed to mean 'Send'?

This is not anything complex we're talking about - it's just sending an SMS. I did wonder if he would work it out... he couldn't.

I've not run the test with just simple dialling.. gotta find a new subject (the nature of these kind of tests is you can't use the same person twice since they know what to expect the second time). Will they notice the toolbar at the bottom? (since the iphone does not bring up the keyboard by default - there's an extra operation to throw it off - if you don't notice the toolbar and recognise that it *is* a toolbar you're hosed).

 

[masteroflondon]

4. Message comes up but *keypad is in alphabetic mode* (BUG I think - it makes no sense.. should be the phone keypad). By this time he's really frustrated and gives up.

I don't understand, what's wrong with the alpha keyboard at this point? Seems right to me, I start typing the name of the contact I want to send to and it homes in on the correct address book entries.

Do you normally send to people not in your address book, and type their number from memory? Or was your friend doing so because it was not his phone so his contact would not be there?

I'd imagine Apple found most users text to people in their address book and this configuration works best for them. Certainly does for me!