As we prepare for the launch of the iPhone 6 later this evening, a queue has already formed outside the Apple's Regent Street Store, despite the fact the smartphone is not expected to go on sale until September 19.
Two tents were erected outside the store at 6pm on Monday evening, 24 hours before the launch event was due to take place.
"It was very, very noisy, and I'm very, very tired," said Bonnie Carr, a jovial young woman who's camping out on behalf of TaskRabbit, an online and mobile marketplace that allows users to outsource small jobs and tasks to others in their neighborhood.
She's prepared to spend up to two weeks sleeping in a flimsy blue tent outside the store on the pavement, passing on the baton to other members of her team to allow for showers and toilet breaks.
Her neighbor in the green tent is a young Hungarian man who arrived at the same time the previous evening, she said. He was catching up on some much needed sleep when I stopped by, though Bonnie thinks he's planning on selling his spot to the highest bidder as the retail date approaches.
The practice has worked well for cousins Ceballo and Joseph Cruz in the past, who are currently camping outside the New York Apple Store. The pair sold their places at the front of the queue for $2,500 (£1,500), and estimate they've made $7,000 from the practice in the past five years.
As the the iPhone 6 itself, Bonnie is enthusiastic about what the new handset will be like. Reports suggest it will be larger and slimmer than its previous incarnations, come in 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch versions, and sport a protruding rear-facing camera lens.
"I know roughly what it will be, I'm hoping the sapphire glass is going to be as nice as they tell us," she said. "I'm hoping it'll be light and slim, and I'm gonna go for the larger model I think, which they may call the 6L, but they won't tell me."
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