Customers Snap Up Apple's IPhones

A person waiting in line for the new iPhone takes a nap in front of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York, Thursday, June 28, 2007. The iPhone will be on sale starting tomorrow, Friday, at 6 p.m. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig - AP)

Fellow customer Nick Seaver, 21, couldn't wait. He flipped open his Mac laptop right in the mall and paid $5 to use the wireless network and activate it. But because his current service contract with Verizon was set to expire the next day, Seaver got a computer message from iTunes he would have to wait 24 hours before his iPhone worked.

Will all the waiting have been worth it? For many, it didn't seem to matter.

"I just love getting new stuff," said retiree Len Edgerly, who arrived at 3 a.m. Friday to be first in line outside an Apple store in Cambridge, Mass. "It's the best new thing that's come along in a long time. It's beautiful."

Even Steve Wozniak, the ex-partner of Jobs, showed up at a Silicon Valley mall at 4 a.m. aboard his Segway scooter. He helped keep order in the line outside the Apple store.

The other customers awarded the honorary first spot in line to Wozniak, who planned to buy two iPhones on Friday even though he remains an Apple employee and will get a free one from the company next month. He said the device would redefine cell phone design and use.

"Look how great the iPod turned out," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "So who wants to miss that revolution? That's why there's all this big hype for the iPhone."

Apple's media blitz wasn't without its glitches.

On NBC's "Today" show, co-host Meredith Vieira ran into problems trying to get the iPhone to work, laughing that "this is why gadgets drive me crazy."

With a team of Apple representatives hovering off-screen, Vieira was supposed to receive a call from co-host Matt Lauer in London. The iPhone _ billed by Apple as the most user-friendly smart phone ever _ displayed the incoming call, but she couldn't answer it.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment.

The gadget, which Jobs has touted as "revolutionary," has been the focus of endless anticipatory chatter and has been parodied on late-night TV. Since its unveiling in January, expectations that it will become yet another blockbuster product for Apple has pushed the company's stock up more than 40 percent.

Apple itself has set a target of selling 10 million units worldwide by 2008, gaining roughly a 1 percent share of the cell phone market. It's expected to go on sale in Europe later this year and in Asia in 2008.