Nov 12, 2007

iPhone: fastest-selling product of all time

MOBILE phone giant O2 has declared Apple's iPhone its fastest-selling product of all time, less than a week after the handset went on sale in Europe.

The Daily Mail reported that O2 stores experienced a 300 per cent increase in customers since the iPhone was released last Friday, and the company was rumoured to have hired more than 1000 extra staff to cope with demand.

O2, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica, told the newspaper they had sold tens of thousands of units so far.

The company also predicted that "a couple of hundred thousand" more iPhones would leave its shelves over the Christmas period.

About 1300 stores around the UK were selling the iPhone on Friday morning. Several hundred customers lined up outside one Apple store in London waiting to get their hands on one, The Daily Mail reported.

O2 is the only company in the UK to legally use the handsets over its network.

A release date for the iPhone has not been set for Australia, but thousands of locals are thought to be using the handset already after importing it from overseas and using internet downloads to unlock the phone for use with domestic carriers.

More than 1 million iPhones have been sold in the US, where Apple recently announced plans to limit sales to two per customer and refuse cash payments to prevent people unlocking the phone and selling it overseas.
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