Thousands queue as iPhone 4S goes on sale to the public

Lee Bell
October 14, 2011
32 Comments

4sThe iPhone 4S finally went on sale to the public across the world today – with Australian, Asian and European markets being among the first to open their doors to iPhone fanatics. As the Apple flavoured rays of sunlight welcomed us to the 14th October, my oh my, what international mayhem we’ve seen already. And that’s even before the big ol’ Yanks have got their mitts all over it.

Following one million first-day pre-order figures, Apple stores in Australia, Japan, Germany, France and the UK witnessed queues stretching around city-centre blocks and department stores this morning. They’re probably still queuing now, with the usual crowd of fans and their unhealthy addiction to Apple products at the forefront. Yep, we’re sure it doesn’t come as a surprise to you that these nutters have been queuing for days, some even weeks.

World time differences meant that fans Down Under were the first in the world to pick up this year’s holy grail of mobile gadgetry. AustralianIT reports that queues snaked out past Sydney’s flagship Apple store, on the street and around a four-story office, with some customers queuing for three days come rain or shine. A collective countdown to 8.00am from rows upon rows of shrieking iPhone customers signaled the unbolting of the world’s first iPhone 4S-stocked Apple Store’s doors. Fans rushed inside with nothing but uncanny grins of anticipation on their bedraggled faces.

However, someone was jealous of Apple’s attention, with arch enemy rival Samsung trying their best to ambush the release.  As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Samsung were selling $2 Galaxy SII smartphones in a temporary shop right outside the Apple store. Sounds pretty desperate to us. But in a bid to lure in customers who aren’t so iPhone-obsessed, queues apparently formed longer than that of the Apple store so the first 10 in line would get a Samsung’s version of the iPhone for $800 cheaper. Which is pretty strange as it comes only days after they announced they were halting the unveiling ofa new Android phone in respect for the death of Steve Jobs. Then again, Apple did just ban them from selling their iPad rival tablet computer in Australia so you can kind of understand it. Round two!

An hour later saw similar scenes in Japan when they awoke to the alarm of their soon-to-be replaced iPhone 4. Like in Sydney, hundreds lined the streets of Tokyo, with one Japanese mobile operator’s registration services crashing due to significant volumes of new iPhone customers.

PCworld reported that the mobile operator Softbank – which is Japan’s third largest of its kind – was temporarily overwhelmed by the demand. In some locations across Japan, it was unable to process new contracts or phone upgrades until the system was fully restored at 11 a.m. That didn’t put the avid iPhone buyers off though, who carried on queuing until the problem was restored.

Queues in Paris were smaller than those normally seen at major city’s iPhone launch, with some fans there wondering if the somewhat underwhelming launch had put people off. In the UK this certainly wasn’t the case. London’s Apple stores were flooded with humans from all walks of life – all desperate to get hold of legend Steve Job’s last ever iPhone.

queues for iPhone 4S

Never-ending queues outside London's Regent Street Apple Store

Reuters report that on Regent Street in central London, the queue wound down a side-street and into a park, where Starbucks had a mobile stand to serve coffee. It seems even other conglomerates are profiting from the smartphone hype.

As the sun gradually moves its way across the different time zones of the earth, we’re yet to see Apple’s doors open in the place where people seem to have gone the most insane over the iPhone – the US. Mashable reports that during the evening preceding the release, there were 25 people in line outside the store. Doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider at the front of that queue were two girls who had been there for 17 days, it sounds pretty darn impressive. Not to mention, foolish. Sat outside the flagship store, these two girls – named Jessica Mellow and Kennen Thompson, aged 26 and 21 – said they were doing it for “the experience”. They used donated bin bags to stay dry in between slipping into a car parked across the street to sleep. Why didn’t they just ask a tramp what that feels like?

One of the girls said: “It’s not about the money, it’s not about the phone, it’s about the experience. We wanted to have this whole experience and ride it out to the end. It’s a goal we set for ourselves.”

It is believed that almost a third of those queuing outside the Apple stores today were upgrading to iPhone 4S from other phone manufacturers. We’re sure with the BlackBerry messenger ordeal, most of those in iPhone queues in Europe will be the owners of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) products. They must be gagging to buy a new smartphone that actually lets them use the services it provides.

For UK iPhone customers, it doesn’t look like Apple got everything right in time for their initial release. Again. Reports are coming in that the new Siri voice activated personal assistant device isn’t providing much of a local benefit. Cnet UK reported that Siri’s UK maps and look-ups don’t work yet. We’re sure Apple will sort that out in time though. You know, just like they did with the previous model’s dodgy antenna…

Although the iPhone 4S doesn’t provide that much of an upgrade in terms of appearance from its predecessor, the iPhone 4, analysts expect fourth-quarter iPhone shipments to reach 30 million or more. That’s almost twice as many as a year ago. The new model is nothing more than an upgraded camera, faster processor and integration of Siri. Nevertheless, it could have been shaped like, or even smell of feces and people would have still gone stark raving mad for it.

It’s evident that the launch marks the most important date for mobile devices, or even all devices in the technology calendar. Especially for the gaming landscape – with mobile gaming having the biggest growth area in the gaming industry alongside Asian gaming. iPhone’s ever-evolving technology and not to mention hype can only provide a platform for better quality gaming and thus aid the expansion of gaming markets.

Where do you see the iPhone taking us?

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Tags: Apple, Article, Blackberry, iPhone, iPhone 4S, samsung, Smartphone, Steve Jobs
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