Apple iPhone: Biggestproduct of 2007; Most hyped gadget in the history of mankind; The cause ofmore worldwide hysteria than George W Bush and his army of tyrannicalRepublican mercenaries; The most written about, and most sexy product since theWonderbra; Best and slimmest household item since individually wrapped cheese slices; And finally,the most worshipped invention since Jesus Christ himself.

The irony was not lost on me as I travelled over to Bristol on Friday afternoon to cover the Apple iPhonelaunch in the UK.After all, only four months ago I published a Rungsberry blog entitled ' 5reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable'.

Biggest launch of the year?

But after being invited by the Carphone Warehouse to its store in Bristol,I went along with my Editor and our Copy Editor, Julia Sagar, to witness the launchof, what is in all honesty, the hottest product launch any of us have ever witnessed.

Would crowds, thousands-strong, storm the Carphone Warehousestore in Broadmead to seize iPhones by force? Would violence break out amongstthose in the queue? Would people be crying with sheer joy at the very thoughtof getting their hands on an iPhone? Would we see Apple Fanboys discardingtheir Sony Ericsson and Nokia handsets, ceremoniously setting them on fireand lobbing them into the River Avon?

In actual fact, none of the above things happened. Thelaunch, in Bristol at least, was fairly low-key. We saw none of the manic scenes that Dan and Anna witnessed in London.

Meet the iTramp

The only odd thing that did happen involved a weird homelesstramp man, his efforts to get an iPhone and his bafflement at the realisationthat things in the 21st Century do actually cost money. The vagrant identified himself as "Mr King. Just, Mr King".

Drawn by the scent of free Carphone Warehouse sandwiches, he was held at bay for afew minutes by security guards. But after a while he was in the store, minglingwith the other iPhone-suitors: a quiet collection of people who smelledconsiderably less bad than he did.

He kept asking me how he could get an iPhone. I told him totalk to someone who actually worked in the store. So he went and waited to beattended to.

It took about 15 minutes for any store assistants to buildup enough bravery to speak to him though. And the look of disappointment on hisface when he realised that a pocketful of mouldy chocolate biscuits was notlegal tender in the world of retail, was as heart breaking as it was hilarious.

Who wants a 3G iPhone?

At 6.01pm, one minute before the doors opened, there wereabout 20 people in the queue. I spoke to a lot of them, and most said they justwanted to have a look to see what all the fuss was about. Only a smallproportion intended to actually buy an iPhone.

Not one person said they gave a toss about the iPhone nothaving 3G. The resounding consensus was that 3G was not necessary and that itwasn't the big turn-off that many people might like to think.

The first lady through the doors at 6.02pm was called LouiseWilcox. She told me that she "just really, really loves Apple products". Havingsaid that, it was the first Apple product she's ever actually bought. But asshe walked back out of the store (chased by photographers and roving radio reporters), she was ecstatic with her purchase, and whocould blame her?

Forthe record, Weird Tramp Guy did not get himself an iPhone. Nor did he get afree laptop, after he realised that the AOL broadband that you had to get in order to qualify for a free laptop in the Carphone Warehouse, also cost real money.

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