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With iPhone sales slowing in the US, tonight was going to herald glorious sales in the UK, as the iPhone was launched by O2 and the Carphone warehouse (on O2).

Except it went badly

The planned queues of people never happened. And it didn’t get any better. After just one hour of sales the number of staff in the two branches of Carphone warehouse in Liverpool was more than the number of customers there. And they were customers who were looking rather than buying. The cash register was very quiet.

One poor sole was dressed up as Mowbli (right) in an attempt to attract peoples attention, while others tried to drag anyone into the store to just look at the iPhones. Huge stacks of leaflets went unused.

A CPW staff member later said that their target for the night had been halved to 36 at the last minute, although he didn’t think it had been reached. ‘I really hope tomorrow is better, it has to be’ he said.

The O2 store in Liverpool city center looked a bit better, with the number of people in it looking like an average Wednesday afternoon. But again not many people seemed to be leaving the store with carrier bags.

If this is reflected around the country then both Apple and O2 are in serious trouble… and may have  to change the whole iPhone business model

PsionAndy (139 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook