UK Iphone launch is a shambles

THE SECOND COMING of the Iphone turned into a horrible mess today as angry queues and failing systems turned Apple's big day into an utter farce.

The INQUIRER dragged its bones out of bed at 7.30 this morning to stand in a queue of eager Apple fans at our local O2 outlet awaiting for the advertised 8.02am opening time.

When the doors were finally flung open, three people at a time were let into the store and it soon became apparent that the expected 20 minute processing time for each applicant had been grossly misjudged.

In fact it was nearly 50 minutes before the first proud owner sheepishly blinked his way back into the sunlight clutching his carrier bag sporting the legend 'I'VE GOT IT'.

O2's computer system had crashed within minutes of opening and the store was warning that the stocks of 16GB handsets was 'limited'. This limit turned out to be just five, news of which thinned the original queue of about 60 people down a fair bit when it was announced that they had all gone.

Staff told the INQUIRER that the system problems meant that applications were being processed manually, but things were proceeding slowly and it was another half an hour before the next happy shopper emerged.

A quick bit of mental maths led you intrepid reporter, who was about 33rd in the queue by this time, to take the plunge and abandon the O2 store and head down the street where the Carphone Warehouse was due to open at 9.00. The queue here was smaller, but we had already been told that CW would have no 16GB devices at all. Oh well... needs must.

And then the doors opened. About a dozen people rushed inside. Then the staff announced that their system was also down and that the people who had been waiting outside for an hour or more would have to leave details, and that staff would call them when the system was working again. Oh... and that they didn't actually have any physical stock of the Iphone, but they could be ordered for a Monday delivery.

Things were starting to get ugly by this time.

Luckily, this Inqster had made the fiendish move of popping into the store a week or so before and had snuck his name onto a secret waiting list. It turns out that I was the first person on the list and that I would be the lucky recipient of 50 per cent of the store's entire Iphone stock.

That's right. They had been sent two... yes that's TWO... 8GB Iphones.

Two hours later, after problems with computer systems, credit checks, PAC codes, incorrect numbers, stupid staff, dozens of phone calls and much gnashing of teeth, we finally walked out of the store with a shiny new 8GB Iphone 3G.

And was it all worth it?

Oh yes... yes it was. µ