Carphone Warehouse, Europe's biggest independent cell phone retailer, predicted on Thursday that it could sell up to 10,000 iPhones when it first goes on sale there next week. The touch-screen smartphone, which combines Apple's popular iPod music player, a camera, and a Web browser, will be sold through Spanish-owned operator
Apple has not given any forecasts for sales since announcing the launch in Britain, but Darren Gardner, head of U.K. wireless operations at Carphone Warehouse, said that with about 800 stores across the country, Carphone could hope to sell up to 10,000 iPhones in the first day. The phone will go on sale at 6 p.m. local time next Friday, and the Carphone stores are set to stay open for four hours afterward to meet consumer demand. "We will hope to represent a big share of what is sold," he told reporters Thursday.
