O2 and Carphone Warehouse’s decision to place large numbers of live demonstration iPhones on display appears to have paid off, with only four ‘official’ thefts of the handsets.

O2 said that it had three iPhones stolen from its 450 stores, while Carphone said it was only aware of one device being stolen.

It is not known how accurate the official figures are or whether more iPhones were in fact stolen.

Before the iPhone went on sale, O2 sales director Mark Stansfeld said: ‘We’re taking measures to make sure we keep an eye on them, but the most important thing to recognise is most people are honest.’

One of Carphone’s smaller stores had to make do without a demonstration iPhone after its only device was stolen.

The handset was swiped during a busy period at the compact store in Soho last Wednesday. A member of staff said the thieves used a knife to slice through the alarm cable before the device was pulled from the display unit.