iPhone fever surges at launch

Apple's iPhone, one of the most eagerly awaited devices in years, went on sale Friday with technology fashionistas queued up country wide to shell out at least 500 dollars for the cell phone-music/video player.

Lines up to 400 people deep snaked from the doors of Apple and ATT shops from New York to San Francisco for the countdown to the 6:00 pm release in respective time zones, with some eager early adopters having camped out in tents since Monday for the chance to be among the first to get an iPhone.

"This looks like the start of a new era of technology, like the turn of the century," said Tanith Nichols as he sat in a canvas camping chair in the early morning darkness outside Apple's store in downtown San Francisco.

At the Apple store on New York's 5th Avenue, some 160 people were in line at 8:30 this morning as television crews filmed the crowd.

"I hardly slept since I came Thursday morning," said Jessica Rodriguez, 24, as she waited.

The fever is over what could be the most-hyped personal electronic device in history, a slim, pocket-sized machine from the innovative Apple computer company that, enthusiasts say, "does it all."

The iPhone merges mobile telephone, Internet browsing, e-mail, text messaging, and music and video replay (like Apple's market-dominating iPod) into one device.

And, unlike any of its competitors, it gives up a mechanical keyboard for a 3.5-inch (8.9-centimeter) wide glass touch-screen. All commands, from dialing a telephone number to surfing the Internet, are done by tapping or sliding a finger on the screen.

The iPhone is not cheap, though: it is priced at 499 dollars or 599 dollars, for four or eight gigabytes of memory, respectively.

Dubbed "a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer" by influential technology writer Walter Mossberg, who tested it for weeks, the phone went on sale both at Apple Stores and ATT cellphone service shops. ATT is the exclusive service provider for iPhones.

But industry analysts say there is one great unknown about the launch: whether iPhone owners, familiar with cellphone buttons, will like adapting to a touch-screen.

In downtown San Francisco, close to Apple's home, a muscular, tattooed barber named Mark sat at the front of the line together with Larry Taylor, 54.

The two arrived at 8:00 am Thursday; Mark, 31, brought along his barber tools and gave Taylor a hair cut last night.

"I'm getting an iPhone for my daughter," he said. "I'm spending 600 dollars. I'm paying this one on credit. I'll probably overdraw my bank account, but, oh well."

Not a few of those in line, however, were paid to hold places for others, or were planning to sell the phones for personal profit or to raise money for a charity.

Interest in the phone has swept the technology business and telecoms markets since Apple chief Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January. At the time he declared that the company hopes to claim a one percent share of the worldwide market of one billion mobile phones within a year.

Overseas consumers will have to wait a few more months to snap up one of the devices. The iPhone is due to debut in Europe in late 2007 and Asia in 2008.