I SPEND A LOT OF TIME in my corner shop, often chatting with a Polish shop assistant. She's sharp, witty and quite observant when it comes to consumer psychology. We got talking about the iPhone because she saw my brick of an E90 (at left next to my test iPhone) and she wondered how it compares to the iPhone. I told her the biggest difference is that I didn't have to queue for my E90 and that a Nokia guy actually brought it to me in a coffee shop. When Apple launched its 3G iPhone in Ireland, the first day of sale attracted queues outside some phone shops in Ireland and that was part of a plan of Apple media hype. The news covered the energy of the queues and Apple got free press. She thought it was strange that nobody reporting on these queues ever asked people why they didn't come by a few days later, instead of burning time waiting in a line that didn't have to be. But media complicity is nothing like the Polish scrum around the iPhone. Orange is launching the iPhone in Poland and according to my (reliable) Polish shop assistant, Orange is hiring actors to queue outside its stores. Dominica knows one of the women paid to queue. Funnily enough, Orange could probably have found some Irish iPhone fanatics who would have queued for free.
Bonus Link: iPhone support policies.
