The release of the long-awaited fourth generation iPhone yesterday was met with the usual understated calm we’ve come to expect from Apple fanboys, as Regent Street’s Apple store was lined with eager and weary followers desperate to be the first in. The awaiting fans began their wait at sundown until the wee hours of the morning before the sun had even rised, which was necessary as many of them had not ventured into natural sunlight since the midday release of the orignal iPhone. The event, like most Apple releases or announcements, was a focus for many tech journalists, who were on the scene to hound the most eager customers at the very front of the queue.

Louis Frankland, who was ninth in the queue at the Regent Street Apple Store, told me in an interview that the assembled fans thought very highly of the new phone, but agreed almost unanimously that the ‘FaceTime’ feature was useless. He was the first to leave the Apple store with the new device (having had the foresight to pre-order) but, embarassingly for Apple, ‘FaceTime’ failed to work when Mr. Frankland attempted to demonstrate the feature for BBC reporters. Ironically, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the phone earlier this month, he had to ask the reports to stop using the Wifi at the keynote speech so he could show off the data-heavy features. When asked if any Apple-bashers had simply joined to queue to make fun, Mr. Frankland replied, “No, but some people passing tried… I swear some of the guys had been working on responses” Mr. Frankland enjoyed the Apple camaraderie, saying “You felt quite happy to lend your £1000 macbook to a complete stranger” and later tweeting:

Louis Frankland being interviewed outside Regent Street Apple Store (picture courtesy of iPhone Italia):

In a suprising show of restraint, Britain’s biggest Apple fanboy, Stephen Fry, only referenced the release once on Twitter, albeit a reference that linked to a lengthy analysis:

and warned, in his review, that, “The hooplah that surrounds the release of a new Apple product is enough to make many otherwise calm and balanced adults froth and jigger”. Early reviews seem very pleased, if a little bit underwhelmed, by Apple’s new offering, enjoying the higher resolution screen and front-facing camera but noticing more prominent signal problems than on previous models and commenting that the phone isn’t as revolutionary as Steve Jobs seemed so eager to point out, but concede that it’s still an evolutionary leap for Apple’s smartphone. The reviews of the new ‘FaceTime’ feature seem to agree with the fanboys in that it is about as useful as an ice condom.