The night of November 9, 2007 has come and gone. At 6.02pm that Friday night, the stores of Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse simultaneously opened its doors to allow the denizens of London and the rest of Britannia their first feel of the gadget of the year, none other than Apple’s much-hyped iPhone.

That Friday night has come and gone, but how was it? Did Apple exceed its expectations for establishing its foothold in the British market? Apparently, only sales figures for that night can say for sure, and naturally only Apple has this data. No one else in the blogosphere has it.

But while the iPhone launch last Friday did not reach the levels of mania that was seen in New York when the gadget of the year made its worldwide debut in June this year, what with around 600 people lining up some 100 hours prior to launch time, anyone can happily say that the British launch of the iPhone was more than fairly decent. There was an estimated 400 people crowding the doors of the Apple store in Regent Street in London that Friday night, and the atmosphere was certainly euphoric. It was a lot more quiet at the O2 store along Oxford Street and in the various Carphone Warehouse outlets all over London, but the excitement was definitely there.

Given that there is no available data regarding actual sales of the iPhone during launch day, judging from the 8,000 activation attempts that O2 claimed to have on the blogosphere grapevine, it seems that the sales of iPhone units, at least those sold by O2, were not so bad at all. In fact, it seemed quite a sunshiny deal that O2 landed on, especially since it is reported that two-thirds of O2 iPhone buyers are new subscribers.

It surely is sweet. I guess Apple really did good on the British launch day.