Apple releases new iPhone in the UK

The new iPhone's gone on sale this morning.

There's huge demand for the 4S, even though there's disappointment that there's no iPhone 5.

In London, people queued for a week outside the shop in Regent Street to be their first to get the new iPhone.

Technology enthusiasts paid their “last tribute” to the late Steve Jobs as they queued.

Crowds of people flocked to Apple stores around the UK to get the must-have smartphone in the wake of the Apple founder’s death last week after battling pancreatic cancer.

Hundreds of technophiles were cheered and clapped into Apple’s London Covent Garden store as the doors were flung open at 8am.

Maria Yasianetskaya, 26, who lives in London, said: “I think it’s touching and is specially connected to this occasion, it’s like the last tribute we can pay (to Steve Jobs).”

The launch of the iPhone 4S came during a torrid week for rival BlackBerry, which sparked widespread anger following a technical failure which left millions of its customers unable to access email or internet services for more than three days.

Duncan Hoare, 42, from Hampstead, was first in the queue and had been camping out since Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Hoare said Mr Jobs’ death was “tragic”, adding: “He will be a huge loss to the world.

“I would have come anyway and I would have bought the phone anyway but I think there’s a lot of thoughts here for him.”

Matthew Michael Kelly, 19, from South Wales, had been queuing since Thursday.

He said: “BlackBerry epically failed.

“You could not send messages, you could not connect to the internet, you couldn’t get emails or anything.”