Over in England, PowerPage reader Neal Hoskins sent this along with the following UK Launch Day photos:

I came.

I saw.

I didn't get an iPhone.

Well, there you are. The fated November 9th has come and gone, there were queues at the Apple Store in Regent Street (but of course there would be if you shut a big store for four hours) but in many of the other outlets for 02 and the Carphone Warehouse, there was no wait or even a queue. The articles and reviews on the iPhone have been of the board and hats off to Apple for getting the iPhone into the mainstream press (even the ultra-conservative Daily Mail reviewed it.) Now it's Monday and with no more people waiting, I wonder how many iPhones they actually sold to those who were not Apple fans (all the people in the queque in Eichmond I spoke to were).

The amount of over-the-top preparation I saw present when the staff inside the store almost outnumbered the number of people waiting. No one wanted a demonstration, just to buy the iPhone as the overkill on reviews and the excellent apple support on what the phone does has meant that we all know what this iPhone is....

P.S.: I must say though the web browing and photo pinching functionality rocks and that is what will change the face of mobile software, that much I am sure of...

Another recap came in from a user named Mark with additional details as to his queue experience:

I got up yesterday morning, looked at the weather (cold and chance of rain) and made a decision not to go to the Regents Street Apple store and to go to the Brent Cross store instead.

I went, got in the queue at about 4 PM and spent the next two hours chatting to the guy next to me about all things Mac. While we were waiting, the Apple staff came up and down the line giving out bottles of water and even arranged for Starbucks to bring us small coffees.

At about 5.55, the curtains lifted and the doors to the store opened. The staff let us in at precisely 6.02 PM. As we walked into the store, the staff high-fived us, shook our hands and there was much cheering and general applauding.

The queue line inside the store went up the left hand side, they turned the Genius Bar into a till point (Checkout) and the queue moved very quickly.

I was about number 30 in line and there must have been about 150 people in total waiting for the opening. Even so, I managed to go in, buy my iPhone, get an accessory and get back to my car within 20 minutes.

A pleasant surprise was in store when I purchased the iPhone. It came with a card that gives me a free hours worth of training on the iPhone. I was not expecting this and I can imagine that the customers at the O2/CPW shops did not get this.

All in all, it was a very pleasant experience shopping in the Apple store and waiting in line.

Once I got the iPhone home, I carefully unboxed it, set up the dock, connected the phone and followed the activation procedure through iTunes.

The iPhone was connected and on the network in minutes, the signal at home is poor to nothing-at-all unless I put it on my desk next to my MBP. If I put it there, then I can get three or four bars on the signal.

I think that the phone as a whole is great, I have so far only used it in the house on the home Wi-Fi network and outside the house once. I have to say though that the whole browsing experience is smooth.

I have yet to see the little E symbol on the top bar of the phone. I am only getting a little blue square. I think this means that I am connected to GPRS. Either way, connecting to the Internet this way is not as slow as I thought that it would be. In fact, it is about what I hoped the speed would be like. If this is GPRS I think that Edge will be a pleasant surprise.

Strangely enough, Neal also mentioned that the older four gigabyte units seem to be prevalent over there so far. If you've seen this or have any thoughts or ideas, let us know in the comments or forums.