Freebies lured punters to Nokia 5800 queue

INITIALLY THE INQ thought Nokia had taken a leaf out of Orange' Poland's book and paid actors to queue - Ithingey-like - outside its Regent Street Store last Friday for the 5800 launch. But, apparently, it was the freebies which attracted the queue.

Last August a spokesman for Orange Poland admitted to Reuters that, "We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone."

In Nokia's case they weren't queuing but street dancers performing for prospective purchasers.

One INQ reader who was there moaned that Nokia, "thought it would be a hoot to force punters to wait in the rain and the cold while a bunch of out-of-work actors danced around with umbrellas and 5800s clutched to their ears."

So why was there a queue of about 150 outside the store?

Well, the first 200 customers got a whole bunch of free content including films like 'I met the Walrus' as well as mobile apps like Touch Guitar.

They also got a free pair of WH-700 headsets. Not the WH-500 which the INQ reviewed and which we now learn retail for £58 from Mobile Fun.

The clue as to the main reason why many people joined the queue was revealed by another IQ reader who was lucky enough to get two free tickets to the Spanish music festival, Benicassim.

He'd heard that selling the tickets on Ebay would more than cover the cost of the handset. The INQ's looked at Ebay and one set of Benicassim tickets is going for £140.

So if you sold both tickets you have a potential net profit of £35. No wonder, then, that with about 150 punters, the 5800's line was reported larger than Apple's Ithingey queue of around 100 people. µ