UK iPad launch photos: The view from the queue
Apple fans - including Stephen Fry - get their hands on the touchscreen tablet
Apple's iPad went on sale in the UK today, with hundreds of eager customers congregating at the company's flagship store on London's Regent Street before it opened in order to be among the first to get their hands on the device.
Photo credit: Tim Ferguson/silicon.com
The queue stretched from the door of the Apple Store along Regent Street and around the corner into Hanover Street for several hundred metres.
Photo credit: Tim Ferguson/silicon.com
Project manager Kat Miller joined the queue on her way to work at 7.30am. American friends who already have an iPad recommended the device to Miller, who said she planned to get a 64GB wi-fi-only version of the device.
She said the first thing she'd do when she'd got her iPad was to download apps including Twitter client Tweetdeck.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Tracy Currer, co-founder of Ecomodo, started to queue at 6.30am.
Ecomodo is an online marketplace that allows users to lend and borrow objects, skills and spaces for free, for a fee or for a charity donation.
Currer plans to lend out the iPad that she bought for a small fee which will go to charity.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Staff from Starbucks were despatched to the queue to give out free coffee between 7am and 9am.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Before the Apple store's doors opened at 8am, its staff stood by the main door and cheered people in the queue, some of whom had been there since 4pm the day before.
Of the people silicon.com spoke to, the person who joined the queue earliest was sound engineer Owen Visser who had been there since 4am.
Owen was joined in the queue by his father, Bob Visser, who said Apple technology is a family passion: "We're a family of Mac addicts."
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
One of the first customers walking out of the Regent Street store with their prize.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Kat Miller shows off the iPad she bought before heading off to work.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Apple devotee Stephen Fry was also in attendance and bought a wi-fi and 3G version of the iPad to go with the wi-fi-only model he previously acquired in the US.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com
Staff in the Regent Street store applauded people as they leave the shop with their iPad.
The scenes for the iPad release were reminiscent of those seen back in 2007 with the release of the iPhone in the UK.
Photo credit: Rob Tomkinson/silicon.com