UK iDay: iPhone queues begin!

We chat to the first-in-line UK iQueuer on Regent Street

8 November 2007 16:02 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The UK iQueues have officially begun to form ahead of the Apple iPhone going on sale in the UK on Friday 9th November at 6.02pm at Apple stores, O2 stores and The Carphone Warehouse.

The people in line so far outside Apple's Regent Street store, snapped by our roving London reporters, are braving rain, cold and the mean London streets to be first to get an O2 iPhone.

Graham Gilbert, a 22-year-old computing student (pictured, with green and white umbrella) has bagged the honour of being the first in the UK iPhone queue and turned up at 8.30am on Thursday morning for the privilege.

He told Pocket-lint that he intends to stay overnight and has got his sleeping bag to hand, with friends bringing him and his queue-buddy, TUAW blogger Nik Fletcher, various supplies.

"I've been looking forward to the iPhone since it was announced in January", Graham told Pocket-lint, and revealed that he had bunked a University lecture in order to be there.

Graham, who intends to buy an O2 contract for his iPhone, says he doesn't plan to unlock it, as it would just get "broken" again with the next iPhone update.

The BBC weather service says there will be lows of 3 degrees celcius overnight in London, so it could be a cold wait for Graham.

When the phone made its worldwide retail debut in the States, which was also on a Friday at 6pm, hoards of die-hard Apple fans (and it has to be said, some oddballs) formed queues from the Tuesday onwards.