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Hey y’all, hopefully you caught us for the live launch of the iPhone 3GS sales effort in the US? Our very own Will and Tom were there in person, recording all sorts of things from nipples to moonwalks – oh, and the occasional bit of Apple footage too!
Stefan, Daniel, Simon, and myself joined on the chatroom for some live interaction – and that’s the funniest Friday I’ve had in a long while!
But to get back on-point: what happened in the UK? Well, I’ll come to the reports I’ve heard/read about in another post, but let me offer you my own perspective first, because yours truly was out and about at O2 stores this very morning!
(FYI before we get all in the mix with the comments, I’m based in BERKSHIRE UK, so the places I mention are in that county – about 50 or so miles outside London)
So first I went to the O2 store in READING, where I found queues of about 30 people – apparently there was a brisk trade in Pre-pay devices, which I found fascinating – I certainly couldn’t bring myself to spend £440-530 on the device to get it outright! The queue was very orderly (as you would expect in the world’s leading nation at queueing!), and staff were offering coffee and muffins to people waiting! Nice touch. Estimating the queue to be about 1 hour, I figured I would pop on over to a nearby town, to check another store….
(Oh and in between the two stores I went to assist someone having a diabetic fit, but that’s another story…)
Onward to BRACKNELL, a much small place than READING, but with an O2 Store nonetheless. Whilst the queues had maintained a consistent 30 people at READING (apparently), BRACKNELL had started off at near-20 people, and then had dropped to between 3-5 people by the time I arrived (about 1000hrs). So in simple terms it was much less busy (although that didn’t stop them selling out of white-backed iPhones….). There wasn’t coffee and muffins on offer either, just water – boo.
Overall then, a brisk trade, but there wasn’t any insanity in terms of queue length, people completely losing it or fainting, or any moonwalking (sorry, that’s an in-joke, you’ll get it if you were on the live webcast this morning).
My feeling: not that busy. People are not easy swallowing the mega device/tariff cost – it ain’t cheap, that’s for sure! (Too) high pricing affects business…
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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Matt Radford
