psionandy

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

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SHC

I just happened to be near a Carphonewarehouse at 6 last night. It was empty. I had a play with one of the iPhones on display. It certainly is a stunning looking device, well made. The touch screen works well and the display image was remarkable. But, I then used the web browser to go on-line via the o2 network. Oh dear! I waited and waited for the pages to load then gave up after 5 minutes. I guess I will have to wait for iPhone 2 to have 3G before I take the plunge. And even then only if I can use all the programmes I currently need on my WM device. And don't mention the cost, £269 + £35 per month for 18 months? and that's only 200 mins / 200 texts and the crappy slow o2 data.
My t-mobile Flex / web'n'walk gives me more than that and 3G/HDSPA for £22.50 and a free phone.
I think what's good about the iPhone is that it should give an incentive to Microsoft to improve windows mobile. Hopefully.

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Jogga

Originally Posted by SHC

I just happened to be near a Carphonewarehouse at 6 last night. It was empty. I had a play with one of the iPhones on display. It certainly is a stunning looking device, well made. The touch screen works well and the display image was remarkable. But, I then used the web browser to go on-line via the o2 network. Oh dear! I waited and waited for the pages to load then gave up after 5 minutes. I guess I will have to wait for iPhone 2 to have 3G before I take the plunge. And even then only if I can use all the programmes I currently need on my WM device. And don't mention the cost, £269 + £35 per month for 18 months? and that's only 200 mins / 200 texts and the crappy slow o2 data. My t-mobile Flex / web'n'walk gives me more than that and 3G/HDSPA for £22.50 and a free phone. I think what's good about the iPhone is that it should give an incentive to Microsoft to improve windows mobile. Hopefully.

Excellent post SHC, you have exposed all the salient considerations.

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DotanCohen

Is the OpenMoko available in Europe yet? I'm still waiting for it here in Israel. That is a device that will blow the iPhone out of the water.

Dotan Cohen

What is the iPhone? - What Apple's iPhone is, and what it does.

barsoom

Apple still lives in a world where the US dollar is king. This means their hardware is too pricey in the real world where the US dollar is falling like a rock. For example the Mac Book Pro laptop is selling for over $400 more on the Canadian Apple site than on its US counterpart, even though the Canadian dollar is currently trading at $1.10 US. This made sense a year ago when the CDN$ was trading at $0.68 US, but in this "time of trouble" for the US dollar, it makes no sense.

Why pay a lot more for an iPhone that doesn't do as much as currently available phones. In the US the answer was simple... status. In the UK (and elsewhere I hope), that doesn't justify the huge expense.

barsoom

roaster

Clearly there were a thousand plus queueing at the London Regent Street Apple Store. In Exeter where I live (pop 110K), there were over 100 queuing at one O2 store and 2 Carphone stores. There are four times as many stores per head of population offering iPhone as there were in the US, and the weather was far worse. There were also plenty of empty stores during the US launch. No surprise that the majority in the UK had few customers. If they had averaged 36 sales per store as the original poster suggested, that would have been around 50k sold on the first night. It was probably a third of that.

There are also already tens of thousands of unlocked iPhones already in use in the UK.

Finally the UK press, despite praising the iPhone technically, characterised anyone who bought one on the first day as an "utter wazzock" (thank you Daily Telegraph), or similar. Not surprisingly most normal people have decided to wait until the fuss dies down before going ahead.

Despite what you may think, the "hype" is largely created by the media, not Apple. Don't blame Apple for hopping on board when it's offered.

psionandy

From the reports it does seem like there is a split between regents street, and the rest of the country.

considering the fact that O2 closed all uk stores at 2pm to prepare for the launch, even a 100 person queue would be mildly disappointing.

The 36 was a target for sales, revised downwards from 75 on the day of the launch, in a main city center location.

Considering there were 1500 extra staff taken on for the launch, Every O2/CPW lost half a days trading & had higher staff costs for the launch, this must have cost a packet.

Not suprisingly neither O2 or CPW or even Apple have commented on how successful their big launch was

adamska

I just hope all this rampant fanboyism of apple fans stops. I mean who seriously queues up outside a shop for a phone, then when they get in they are cheered on by the staff who work there??

It's absurd, I'm glad that this farse was as lacklustre as expected, I have nowt against apple products, just the ridiculous publicity machine it uses!

CodeBubba

Originally Posted by adamska

I just hope all this rampant fanboyism of apple fans stops. I mean who seriously queues up outside a shop for a phone, then when they get in they are cheered on by the staff who work there?? It's absurd, I'm glad that this farse was as lacklustre as expected, I have nowt against apple products, just the ridiculous publicity machine it uses!

Yeah ... looks like cult behavior to me. I never could understand people that could waste all the time to go stand in line for a couple days to get the latest toy. I mean, come on. I'm as much of a gadget-hound as anyone, but waiting in line to buy junk like this. Silly.

-CB

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