Another iPhone launch brought another onrush of customers to Apple Stores across the country and around the globe, as eager customers queued up to get their hands on the latest smartphone from Apple Friday.
Customers wait outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York to get their hands on an iPhone 5 Friday. The iPhone 5 went on sale at 8 a.m. local time throughout the U.S. Friday. And that was just one country where the new phone made its debut—the iPhone 5 also arrived in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, France, Germany, Canada, and the U.K.
In New York, that meant the usual crush of customers outside Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue Store, which was as packed as any previous iPhone launch. Adding to the mass of humanity were dense droves of reporters and vendors surrounding the queued up customers. Still, when the store opened its doors at 8 a.m., the line moved briskly and continuously.
One of the first people to buy an iPhone 5 triumphantly emerges from the Fifth Avenue Store. Matthew Wainchus, a student at New York’s Pac University, was in line to buy an iPhone 5 on its first day of availability, just as he has for every iPhone release. He was looking forward to LTE support, which will allow the iPhone 5 to connect to faster cellular networks in the U.S.
“I actually like AT&T,” said Wainchus, who had been in line for two hours before the Fifth Avenue store opened. “A lot of people have problems with it, but I love it.”
Across the Atlantic, crowds waiting outside the Apple Store on Regent Street in London were a bit more mixed about the iPhone 5’s faster networking capabilities. There are about ten countries in Europe where iPhone 5 buyers will be able to take advantage of LTE. In the U.K. a commercial LTE network will soon be launched by operator EE, a joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange.
Some customers outside the London Apple Store couldn’t wait for the speed boost. “Faster is always better. My broadband at home is only 7Mbps and this should be a least three times as fast,” said Aamir Karmali.
EE is the only U.K. operator that will offer LTE, and others buyers don’t think it’s worth switching operators for faster speeds.
“I am on O2, and I am not swapping just to get 4G … I don’t need it, O2’s network is fast enough when you are actually connected to the network,” said Matthew Taylor.
Follow the global iPhone 5 launch with the IDG News service live blog
Taylor isn’t alone in sticking with his current operator: “I am not getting LTE straight away, because I am on Vodafone,” said James Smith.
The first customer in Paris was Anthony Fitch from Rome. He arrived at 10.30pm Wednesday to get his iPhone 5. It goes on sale the 28th in Italy. (Peter Sayer/IDGNS) At the Apple Store Opera in Paris, Anthony Fitch was the first to exit with an iPhone 5. He had arrived in Paris from Rome on Wednesday night to get his hands on an iPhone a week before it goes on sale in Italy. He hoped to be able to use LTE in Italy sometime next year.
Other features, including those in Apple’s just-released iOS 6, fueled interest in the iPhone 5 among shoppers waiting on Friday. “I’m looking forward to Passbook,” Wainchus said back at the Apple Store in New York, “but I kind of wish the iPhone 5 would have NFC.”
Ed Kaz whizzed by as the line marched its way toward the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, but had enough time to say that the Panorama option built-into the iPhone 5’s camera that helps take stitched-together panoramic shots. “I have all the Apple products,” he said.
Alex Russell, an NYU graduate student, was looking forward to the iPhone 5’s larger screen and the new A6 processor. “I like to play games on my phone, so the new screen and processor should be good for that,” Russell said.
Outside the Apple store on Regent Street in London, people stand in line for the iPhone 5. (Mikael Ricknas/IDGNS) The larger screen seemed to be a draw no matter what country customers were in. “Compared to Samsung’s phones, I think it is about time that Apple increased the screen size,” Karmali said outside London’s Regent Street store.
As in New York, the lines outside Apple Store in London and Paris were quite large, with the crowd outside the Paris store somewhere between 500 and 1000 people. The biggest noise made at the Paris launch came from a handful of former Apple resellers protesting outside the store.
Not everyone queuing was there to get a phone for themselves. Just around the corner from the store in Paris, several people were spotted handing over their Apple bags in return for cash from a man with a wad of €50 notes.
Across the globe in Hong Kong, crowds also lined up for the iPhone 5, though in much smaller numbers than in previous launches. Customers there no longer had to wait in line for hours or even days; instead, they could go to the Apple Store to pick up their phones at assigned timeslots as part of Apple’s pre-ordering system.
The global launch of Apple’s iPhone 5 began early Friday morning in Australia when stores in that country opened their doors at 8 a.m. On Sept. 28, the new iPhone will go on sale in 22 more countries.
Expectations are as high as ever for the iPhone 5. Apple has already said that preorders for the new phone topped 2 million in 24 hours. At least one analyst—Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster—predicts that Apple could sell 10 million phones during the iPhone 5’s opening weekend.
David Dahlquist reported from New York. This story also includes contributions from Mikael Ricknäs of IDG News service in London, Peter Sayer from IDG News Service in Paris, and Computerworld Hong Kong.
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