According to gadget insurance company Protect Your Bubble, there were some 300 people in the queue at 1pm on Friday afternoon, still four hours before the launch. When Macworld arrived at around 4pm, there were many, many more, and by 5pm the queue stretched around the corner into Hanover Street, around another corner into St George Street, before doubling back on itself back to the corner of Hanover Street again.

Just around the corner on Oxford Street, in a Three store, things were much quieter. Despite a large poster in the windows display showing the iPad 2, there were just 14 people in the shop waiting to buy a subsidised when Macworld checked in a few minutes after 5pm. A Vodafone store close to Bond Street station was similarly quiet.

Back in the queue for the Apple Store, some 35 percent of the people queuing were planning to buy the 16GB Wi-Fi only version, according to 's data. 75 percent owned an iPhone, with 10 percent owning Android-based handsets. One person owned up to having a Windows Phone 7 handset.

Sixty-two percent were planning to go for a Wi-Fi only model, but no-one that Macworld spoke to in the queue planned to buy the white version.