WARSAW, Poland – A Polish mobile operator said Friday it had hired actors to stand in line to buy Apple's iPhone as the device went on sale for the first time in the eastern European country.

The company, Orange, said it hired the fake iPhone customers as a way to stimulate interest in the mobile device, which has generated huge and genuine demand in the United States, Japan, Germany and elsewhere.

“It was a part of our marketing strategy, the concept was thought up at Orange Poland,” the company told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “The aim was to 'warm up' the atmosphere around the launch of the iPhone.”

The phone was offered in hundreds of retail outlets across Poland. It was priced between $0.45 and $225, depending on the type of contract to which a customer subscribes.

Apart from Orange, whose operator in Poland is Telekomunikacja Polska S.A., the phone was also being launched Friday by a second mobile network, Era, operated by Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa.