Polish Carrier Embellishes iPhone Queues With Actors

Polish peddler for Apple’s 3G iPhone has said that it paid actors to stand in line outside the stores in an effort to drum up some excitement about the product.

When the iPhone launched in the U.S. back in July, there were people queuing a whole week in advance. The fact that these people may or may not have been environmental activists aside, on the day of the iPhone 3G launch, there were more than a few genuine fans who wanted to be the first to get their hands on the product.

While we know that this wasn’t the case everywhere, we didn’t think that anyone would pay actors to stand in line in an attempt to drum up more sales. We don’t know who looks the worst in a situation like this, the carrier, Apple, or Orange Poland’s marketing people. A spokesperson for Orange told Reuters that there would be fake queues in front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone when it launches Poland today.

The marketing ploy is a result of little interest in Apple’s astoundingly popular 3G handset and there are several speculations as to why the Poles aren’t so hot for the iPhone. Many would be inclined to believe that it’s because the Polish don’t want to fork out their hard earned Euro for such an expensive handset. Another is that they’re not happy with the service plan offered by Orange and rather than complaining about the price, opting not to buy it.

Either way, it appears to be a complex case of Apples and Oranges.

(via Reuters)