Sales of the Apple iPhone just about lived up to the hype on the first weekend of the device going on sale.

A queue of Apple disciples snaked around the flagship store on London’s Regent Street onto Hanover Square ahead of the phone going on sale on Friday at 6:02pm. But nearby Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores also selling the device at 6:02pm were far less busy.

Scenes of hysteria were evident at the Apple store as the doors opened, with one witness likening it to ‘eviction night on Big Brother‘.

O2 sent an email to stores an hour after the launch, claiming that 2,000 customers who bought iPhones from O2 stores had registered their devices at 7:02pm. That figure soared to 8,000 by the end of the night.

One O2 salesman said: ‘Lots of people are having a poke around, checking it out, but they’re not comfortable with paying £270, signing up on an 18-month contract and then only getting 200 minutes and 200 texts for £35, even though we tell them they get unlimited data.’