Apple iPhone's European Debut a Bust

Last night, Europe got its first taste of the iPhone mania that plagued (and, really, continues to plague) the United States, when the phone first went on sale in the United Kingdom and Germany. Only it seems that no one showed up. Despite planning for a crush of traffic, anticipating long lines, and staffing up retail outlets with an extra 1,400 staff members, reports state categorically that the response in the United Kingdom has been underwhelming.

Even that might be a generous way to put things. One photo essay shows shot after shot of electronic goods outlets offering the iPhone on sale exclusively, none with lines outside, and most showing no one shopping there at all as of the hour of the phone's release. The only place there actually was a line: At the Apple store, where just 15 people had queued up. (Conspiracists theorize that those in the line might even have been shills.)

Pundits are already falling over themselves to explain the iPhone's flopping in Britain, and the arguments are exactly what people have been complaining about since the phone's initial release in the States: It's too expensive. It's too slow without 3G support. It's locked to one carrier. Other alternatives abound.

Of course, it's hard to draw conclusions on how well the iPhone will do on an entire continent based on one day of sales in just one country, but the outlook so far is far from good. (Reports from Germany seem substantially better.) Coupled with the iPhone's controversial $200 price cut in the States, one has to wonder if the hype hasn't begun to run its course.

Frankly, if it wants to turn this ship around, Apple can't get a 3G iPhone out quickly enough.

LINK: Tumbleweeds outnumber punters, as iPhone's First Night flops (a "punter" is a shopper in British slang, by the way)