iPhone launched in UK today

Apple’s much-hyped iPhone will prompt a rush to stores when it launches in the UK tonight.

Carphone Warehouse, O2 and Apple are braced for huge queues and a surge of customers when the must-have gadget goes on sale at 6.02pm

The iPhone is tipped to be the biggest selling Christmas technology gift - despite some criticism of its £269 (€386) price tag.

The 8GB device combines a touch-sensitive mobile phone handset with a built-in iPod media player and a wireless internet browser.

Die-hard fans started queuing outside Apple’s flagship store on London’s Regent Street yesterday morning.

Friends Graham Gilbert and Nik Fletcher huddled under umbrellas equipped with sleeping bags, food and chairs as they began their wait.

The iPhone goes on sale simultaneously at 6.02pm tonight at about 1,300 Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores across the UK and via the firms’ websites.

Carphone Warehouse expects tomorrow to be its biggest sales day because of the Apple gadget.

Describing the iPhone’s appeal as he waited in the rain yesterday, Manchester Metropolitan University computer studies student Graham Gilbert, 22, said: “It is amazing. I just like the fact that it brings everything I carry with me into one device. I don’t have to think – ’have I remembered my iPod?”’

Nik Fletcher from Petersfield in Hampshire said: “People talk about the cult of Mac. They have a cult and there is a very loyal following.”

The 21-year-old, who works for an Apple Mac development company, said he had already seen the iPhone while in the US.

“I thought it was just the sleekest, easy to use mobile phone I have ever seen,” he said. “It offers this really easy to use, simple, stylish way to make phone calls – so why not.”

The iPhone is already up for sale on eBay.co.uk for more than double its official £269 price tag.

Commenting on the launch, Carphone Warehouse CEO Charles Dunstone said: “It is a really important day not just for Apple but actually for the phone industry. I think it will move people’s perceptions of what a mobile phone is a long way forward.”

He predicted that tomorrow would be the busiest day ever at Carphone Warehouse stores, saying: “It will be the best day we have ever had and our best weekend.”

Sales of the iPhone will initially be limited to two products per person.

The iPhone made its US debut in June, where it shifted 1.4 million units within 74 days.

Apple vice president of iPod and iPhone product marketing Greg Joswiak shrugged off reports that hackers would try to unlock the iPhone from the O2 network, saying: “I think the hacking goes just as a testament to how much people desire this.”

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, earlier said he wanted 10 million iPhones to be sold globally during 2008.