Apple and O2 have been taking hits recently for poor sales performance of the iPhone in the UK, with would-be users complaining that the price is too high and those who have taken the plunge having problems with coverage.  Nevertheless, O2 have been calling it the “fastest selling device [we've] ever seen” and the company estimated 100,000 handsets would be activated in the first fortnight of availability.  Sources close to AppleInsider, however, cast a different light, claiming that the flagship Regent Street Apple store was still working from stock delivered prior to the 9th November launch.

New estimates peg the actual number of handsets activated at just 26,500, a quarter of what O2 predicted, with the Regent Street store selling less than 100 iPhones per day and making a relatively small dent in the several thousand-strong shipment they received.

While it’s dangerous to place too much stock in an unnamed source, the news joins a large body of existing criticism and reticence of the UK iPhone and points to a device that is suffering disappointing sales.  It’s looking more and more likely that warnings prior to UK availability – that the user-base is significantly different to that in the US, and would be unwilling to pay a high price for a device that, on paper at least, lacks many features British users take for granted – should have been heeded when O2 and Apple made their sales predictions.