iPhone 3GS Launch day video

Last Friday saw the launch of the iPhone 3GS across the globe. We decided to take a plunge and go to London UK’s Apple Flagship store to get our shiny new iPhones, and also to document the day.

The queues in the Apple Store were mad. Hundreds of patient users waiting to part with hard earned cash for a new iPhone 3GS. In true Disney style Apple managed to snake the queues round to cram as many people into the store as possible. Then with military precession they were moved from staging point to staging point before finally getting to the sales guy, and getting the new iPhone.

We also took a trip to the Oxford Street Carphone Warehouse where things where a bit quieter, CPW were only selling the iPhones on 18 month O2 Contracts.

The video covers us tramping round London to find some iPhones, and also shows the quality of the new video camera in the phone. This video was taken in my car whilst in a HR iPhone mount (review to follow shortly…)

Our video follows:
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Wasn’t all plain sailing.  Original plan was to grab a couple of PAYG’s from CPW in Oxford Street as they were opening at 7.30am.  Then we could whizz round the corner to film outside the Apple Store,

But when CPW opened we discovered that they were not selling PAYG’s.  So quick change of plan saw one contract 3G S bought at CPW, and then we nipped round the corner and joined the queue at Apple.  The queue was out the door and round the corner by now (8am) but moved quickly.  In lesss than 30mins we were in posession of a PAYG 3G S and had a free coffee courtesy of Apple.

However, Apple transferred my existing 3G PAYG SIM to the new phone and claimed this was what they had to do?  Only when I got home did I discover that this meant no addittional 12mths Web & WiFi!  No mention of this in the store and no new SIM provided with my 3G S because of this.

A call to O2 reveals you only get that if you use the new SIM.  So why didn’t Apple tell me?  So now O2 are sending me the new SIM and I can the transfer my old number.  There are already a number of Twitter posts from users who have had similar issues at O2 stores.  Is this a policy or is someone taking advantage of a nice PAYG SIM that has 12mths free data?

I may use the new SIM in the old 3G and buy the £10/mth web bolt on when my current Web & WiFi package expires in September.  I topped up £10 when I bought the 3G last year and still have £3 left, not a big phone user hence why I wanted a PAYG with free data and not a nasty contract!

Plenty of interest in the new 3G S

With the 3G S launch this Friday many are now wondering if the PAYG version is going to be on sale also?

Last week, shortly after the 3G S was announced at the WWDC, the web-sites of Apple and CPW (Carphone Warehouse) in the UK were claiming both contract and PAYG were going to available on the day.

However a check this afternoon has Apple and CPW now listing PAYG as ‘Coming Soon’.  O2’s website gives no information at all as to when the 3G S will be available on either contract or PAYG tariffs.

So is this is cynical ploy to ensure that only Contract handsets are sold on Friday or a simple error in communication?

Given the furore over the pricing and the lack of any upgrade offers for existing 3G Contract customers, it isn’t hard to imagine that the availability of PAYG hand-sets might hamper sales?

Why pay off your existing contract and upgrade to the 3G S when you could buy a PAYG model and sway your SIM?