iPhone 3G hits London

Friday saw the launch of the iPhone 3G, the second version of Apple's smartphone.

As at the launch of the original iPhone a year ago, a queue formed at the Apple flagship store on London's Regent Street. The queue was, however, smaller this time, numbering only around 70 people. Almost none of those waiting were existing iPhone owners, because Apple stores in the UK are unable to process upgrades from the first- to second-generation handset.

Prior to the store opening at 8:02am — the exact timing being a reference to the UK's exclusive carrier for the iPhone, O2 — ZDNet.co.uk polled some of those waiting for their phones to see what had piqued their interest.

At the time of writing, however, reports were starting to suggest that there were major problems with the launch once it began. Apple's stores have been unable to activate the handsets because the process requires Internet Explorer, while the stores all use Macs. Also, O2's credit-checking systems appear to have crashed, at least temporarily.