Survey of Regent Street iPhone 4S Line Reveals Record Crowd and Other Tidbits

regent street iphone 4s survey
UK insurance firm Protect Your Bubble today conducted a survey of the iPhone 4S line at Apple's Regent Street retail store in London, finding a record line of 778 people just as the store opened for sales.

Analysis of the data, comparing against previous Regent St exit polls on the iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2 launches, shows that the crowd of 778 people for the iPhone 4S comfortably beats the previous record holder of 668 for the original iPhone 4; 662 for the iPad 2; and 451 for the original iPad.

The company has also put together an infographic highlighting a number of pieces of data collected in surveys of the crowd. Among the most interesting results:

- 53% of those in line were there because they missed the pre-order window, while an additional 7% thought the iPhone 4S was only available in-store. A substantial fraction of the crowd was also there primarily for the experience, with 18% saying that simply wanted "to be there" and 11% noting that they were there because they were "die hard Apple fans".

- Nearly half of the crowd was upgrading from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S, while 35% were lining up to purchase their first iPhone.

- The new 8-megapixel camera was cited most frequently (37%) as the "standout feature" of the iPhone 4S, with Siri (34%) registering in a strong second place. But 33% of the crowd viewed Siri as a gimmick rather than a truly useful feature.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

kalsta Avatar
172 months ago
People need to remember that Siri is still beta software. Of course it's not perfect on launch day, but how could you look at it and not be impressed?!

To anyone who says this is just a gimmick that we'll all forget about in time, all I can say is that you truly lack the vision to see where all this is going. In five years, you're going to wonder how you ever called a phone 'smart' before you could have a conversation with it.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayducharme Avatar
172 months ago
it's standing as a gimmick is strictly dependent on how useful it is. If it works, no longer a gimmick
Exactly. The mouse was a gimmick when it first appeared. Eventually, it became an indispensable part of working with technology. Siri will be the same.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mal Avatar
172 months ago
Exactly. The mouse was a gimmick when it first appeared. Eventually, it became an indispensable part of working with technology. Siri will be the same.

Yep. Remember that it was Apple who took the mouse from gimmick to indispensable too, even though they didn't invent it.

Theres a slight difference here.

The mouse was brand new technology at the time, never before seen.

Concepts for Siri style devices were demoed by apple in 1987. There are thousands of voice controllable AI products out there...its not new....its just new to phones (even then not really since similar products have been on Android for a while).

Give it a year and Siri will be forgotten. Give it a month and you'll no longer be using it.

I'm not going to be that pessimistic. You could be right, but Siri is so much better than the Android and other voice solutions, and on a device with so many potential uses (especially if it becomes extensible so that other developers can add their own hooks to it), I suspect that we'll eventually wonder what we did with phone before voice control. Granted, there are many situations in which voice control is not beneficial, but for many situations, it will be very useful. Hands-free operation while driving a vehicle just got much safer, for instance.

jW
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
subsonix Avatar
172 months ago
100% of the participants in the poll had never used it, since it took place in the queue outside. So the 33% figure is a measure of expectation, nothing else. The most facsinating thing about it to me is the calendar scheduling and the geo-fence feature and the fact that it learns from behaviour and remember things about you and your contacts, sort of like a personal secretary.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bryanl Avatar
172 months ago
Before the concept of pre-order, I could totally understand the lines. Now I'm just baffled.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
azzarocks86 Avatar
172 months ago
Please check statistics before re-publishing them

Thought the statistics for Mac owners, PC owners and "both" owners seemed a bit odd and after 5 seconds of thought and some kindergarten math I realized why...
39% I own a Mac
34% I own a PC
12% I own both

This leaves 15% of people lining up on launch day apparently not owning a computer? I know apple are pushing to make iOS devices a replacement for a desktop or laptop but I hardly think this change has happened in the year between the release of the iPhone 4 and the 4S, certainly not amongst the consumers who are willing to line up on launch day.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)