Yet again, intrepid researchers from 63336 met with punters queuing up patiently to get their hands on the latest piece of Apple kit, the iPhone 4, outside Apple’s Regent Street store in London.
The big question we posed to would-be purchasers was ‘are you buying an iPhone 4 for video calling?’, swiftly followed by ‘and would you put on make up to do so?’ Yes, we did ask the men as well.
Comparisons were drawn to the launch of the iPad earlier this month, where the first in to pick up an iPad was mysteriously wearing a 63336 t-shirt. So here’re the answers to everything you need to know about what’s driving people to the iPhone 4:
Q. How many people were in the queue at the iPhone 4 launch?
A. The Apple store doors opened at 6.59am when there were 668 people in the queue. This is more than the iPad queue: that had 431 people when its doors opened at 7.55am.
Q. What did the queue members say was the standout feature for them of the iPhone 4?
A. 24% identified the new slimmer look; 24% also liked the high resolution screen. 19% said the faster processor, 15% liked the 5 megapixel camera, 12% said better battery life and just 6% said video calling.
Q. Why did people think video calling hadn’t taken off before?
A. The biggest group, 27%, said that they didn’t even want video calling. 24% cited poor execution from manufacturers, 21% said too few people have video phones, 16% felt smartphones in the past hadn’t been powerful enough and 12% blamed the operators for not supporting the function.
Q. How many people in the queue would smarten up or put on make-up to make a video call?
A. Only a quarter of the iPhone 4 queue in London (24%) admitted that they would smarten up to call a loved one or their mother. Most wouldn’t bother.
Q. What network will those in the queue be going with on their iPhone 4?
A. 31% of the people surveyed in the queue will stay on O2, 17% on Vodafone, 4% on 3 Mobile, 3% on Orange and 1% on T-Mobile. 44% were buying the device outright with many putting in international SIMs.
Q. What will be the most popular iPhone 4 model in the UK?
A. The 32GB Black version of the iPhone 4 was the most popular, judging by the 63336 exit poll of people in the queue on the day of launch, with over half (53%) going for this model. 47% wanted the black 16GB version. No-one wanted it in white as those haven’t been manufactured yet.
Q. How old are iPhone 4 customers?
A. 50% were 18–25. Compare this to the biggest group of iPad owners, who were aged 26–39 (36%). 31% were 26-39, & 12% were 40-55. Just 7% were older than Steve Jobs (55).
Q. What time on average had people been queuing for?
A. Alex Lee (no relation to Jake Lee at the head of the iPad queue) started the queue at 11.48pm on Tuesday night. 42% were queuing last night. 16% queued from 3am, 16% from 4am and 36% from 6am.
Q. How many women were in the queue?
A. 28% of the queue were women. This compares to just 8% of women in the queue for the iPad launch. Of the men in the queue, 48% had facial hair.
