I say if because when I arrived this morning at 0635, a small queue of about 15 people had already formed, and given that the flagship O2 store on Princes Street, Edinburgh had but 20 16GB iPhones (my model of choice).  It seems that most people also wanted the 16GB model and interestingly, O2 had no iPhones in white.  When I arrived at the door (the queue was let in slowly to allow for activations) I discovered that 12 people had asked for the 16GB model out of the 15 people who were ahead of me.

The 20 units that the O2 store in Edinburgh had was generous compared to the number of units a Carphone Warehouse store that my friend was queuing at had.  She was actually second in the queue and failed to get one.  The store had but one model!

If you have one – I hope you’re enjoying it, otherwise good luck in finding one!

As expected, people who want to upgrade to the iPhone 3G will need to do so online.  This is done here, although you may need to log in first.  You certainly need your account number, which you can get from your O2 bill.  I believe you can also specify a different delivery address, so if you’re working on Friday you’ll avoid a trip to the post office.

In terms of availability and delivery, there are seemingly a ‘limited supply’ and they will be sold on a first come first served basis.  The first batch of iPhones should be delivered on Friday but if you’re not one of the lucky first, delivery ‘may take up to two weeks’.

Activation has been discussed, but O2 have confirmed that those upgrading from the old iPhone will need to use the supplied ‘SIM ejector tool’ to remove the SIM card from the old phone and insert it into the new one.  They also advise that you listen to your voicemail first – activation will delete all voice messages from the account.

O2 had been very quiet about the cost of the iPhone on Pay & Go, and this doesn’t seem to have changed.  O2 now advise that ‘iPhone 3G for Pay & Go will be available later this year’.  It’s a shame they haven’t launched it at the same time.

So, I suggest that if you want your iPhone 3G on Friday, you stay tuned to the website and sign up as quickly as possible when it goes live.

Personally I cannot stand when people call the iPod Touch the iTouch:-

“Hey, I’m looking for the iTouch”
“Oh yes, the iPod Touch is just over here.”

but the fact that Apple has started calling it this is just offensive to see.  Honestly, what is the world coming to? 

I have always conceived of the screen-less little gem as an accessory for the sporty sort, perhaps as a second iPod to a bigger sibling (Nano, Classic or Touch) for times when weight and size need to be minimised and you don’t need your entire collection of 12 thousand songs with you. However, it seems that a lot of people are happy to use something so small, stylish and wearable as their primary MP3 player, not to mention those who are less tech-savvy and are looking for something ‘as simple as possible’, being scared off even by the rest of the iPod range, renowned for simplicity. This is a growing market that Apple have remained largely uncompetitive in recently.

As someone who works in sales for a major electrical retailer in the UK, I know that the popularity of the iPod range cannot be doubted. With the new range of iPods which were launched in September of last year, the pricing was brought down in line with some competition from other brands such as Sony and Creative, but the iPod Shuffle was left (once again) with a comparatively high price and low capacity. It’s not entirely difficult to see why the growing number of customers looking at this class of player might have opted for Creative’s Zen Stone+ over the iPod Shuffle, which boasted 2GB of storage and a screen for more or less the same price.

I think that with Apple re-launching the 1GB model at £32 and introducing the 2GB model (soon) at £45, the iPod Shuffle will return as the obvious choice for those after a small and simple MP3 player.