14 DAY TRIAL // We did find it a little hard to believe that Orange Poland had hired John Does to form fake queues in front of Orange stores in an attempt to drum-up interest in the iPhone 3G. Hence this update coming from World of Apple, which reveals Orange has denied such allegations.
Earlier last week, it had come to our attention that Orange Poland had allegedly hired actors to sit in line in front of Orange outlets, pretending to be fans of Apple's newly-released iPhone 3G. This initiative was an attempt to drum-up interest in the handset, Reuters was reporting, as Poland residents don't seem too fond of the Apple portable. "In Poland, people are getting paid to line up. [...] As part of a marketing campaign ahead of the iPhone's Friday launch in Poland, the country's largest mobile operator Orange is paying dozens of actors to stand in queues," the publication said.
Moreover, Reuters was citing an actual Orange spokesperson as admitting they were the ones behind the initiative. "We have these fake queues [in] front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone," the spokesperson allegedly said.
Whether Orange has indeed paid actors to play the iPhone 3G-fan queues remains to be seen. After all, any company (and especially big ones like Orange) would rush to dismiss these kinds of allegations, more so when it comes to protecting its relations with hot-shot partners like Apple.
Last week, Apple launched its new iPhone 3G in 21 new countries across Europe. While some countries are simply crazy about the new functionality (3G speeds, the App Store, and the rest of features included with the 2.0 firmware), other territories, such as Poland, are seemingly not as interested in the new device, for one reason or another. A good explanation to why Apple decided to launch its iPhone 3G there in the first place also remains to emerge.