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Huge queues wait for Apple iPhone 4 to go on sale

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Genevieve Roberts
12 April 2012

More than 600 people brought Regent Street to a standstill this morning as they queued for up to 30 hours to get their hands on the new iPhone.

A huge crowd massed for the opening of the Apple store at 7am and the launch of the fourth generation phone.

Self-confessed "Apple geeks" were also out in force at three O2 stores in Oxford Street to upgrade their contracts. Today was the first time an Apple product has gone on sale in the US and the UK simultaneously in another marketing coup for Steve Jobs and his corporation.

Alex Lee, 27, a business consultant living in Dubai, had flown in to London for the launch.

Taking first place in the queue, he had clocked up 32 hours, and has previously been to 10 Apple launch events. "It is fantastic, the sheer camaraderie of being here is just brilliant," he said.

He had spent his time tweeting about the event. "I have been updating people who would like to be here but can't on what is going on in the line," he said. He said that the atmosphere was so good it would have been worth joining the crowd even if there was no product at the end of it.

But Mr Lee was not entirely happy after Apple staff allowed customers who had pre-ordered the phone online into the store ahead of him.

Instead, the first person to buy the new iPhone 4 was 23-year-old graduate Ben Paton, from Stoke-on-Trent, who had queued for 16 hours. Mr Lee said he would be emailing the Apple boss to complain.

His sister Priscilla Lee, 15, had also queued for more than 30 hours. "It is worth it," she said. "Not just for the phone, I have been getting to know lots of people here too."

Leaving the store with his new phone, Mr Paton, who has just finished a computing degree, said: "It is so easy my 80-year-old aunt could use it."

Emma Levett, 24, was one of the few women in the mainly male crowd. The personal assistant from Kent joined the queue at 6am. With at least 400 people in front of her, she was worried that supplies may not last. "I would be gutted if they ran out," she said, adding that she was still hoping to get to work on time. "My boss is queuing too," she said, "so this is a good reason to be late."

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