Apple Inc.’s stores attracted long lines of shoppers on Friday for the debut of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, indicating healthy demand for the bigger-screen smartphones. The new iPhones went on sale today in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, Germany and the U.K., before rolling out in Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. Hundreds lined up in cities across Canada for the new iPhones, with the Apple Store in Toronto’s Eaton Centre selling out of the larger model iPhone 6 Plus by 7 a.m. ET, according to a CBC report. In Vancouver, B.C., the RCMP were called in after a crowd of more than 600 converged on a mall to buy the phones, the CBC also reported. Shoppers in New York and San Francisco had already formed lines in the past two days to be among the first to buy the gadgets. At Apple’s store on Fifth Avenue in New York, police officers put up barricades as the line stretched more than 10 blocks and the crowd cheered continuously for the 15 minutes before the phones officially went on sale. Carlos Jimenez, 24, was waiting to get an iPhone 6 Plus for the bigger screen and the bragging rights of being one of the first to have it. “I can watch my Netflix, my YouTube,” Jimenez said. “Even though I know you could get bucks for it, I’m a die-hard Apple fan,” he said, waving off the idea of trying to resell the device. In central Paris, Elias Kartout was among the hundreds of people gathered outside an Apple store early in the morning, with a line stretching around the French capital’s 19th century opera house. Kartout, a Belgian student, said he had yet to make up his mind on if he would go for the iPhone 6 or the 6 Plus. “I’ll decide once I’ve tried it to see how it feels in my hand,” said Kartout, 22, who arrived last night, taking a detour on a trip to Italy. Apple’s iPhone rollout is the most important event this year for the Cupertino, California-based company. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is counting on the handsets to maintain Apple’s sales growth. The devices generate more than half of the company’s annual US$171 billion in revenue and precede a swath of other products, including new iPads and Apple Watch. The iPhones also sport larger screens — 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, compared with 4 inches for previous models — helping Apple appeal to new consumers. More than 1,000 people were in line for Apple’s Regent Street store in London, some sitting on pieces of cardboard to stay dry after a night of rain. Llewellen Fourie, a surveyor from London, said he’s had an iPhone since the original came out, and is now looking to upgrade his golden iPhone 5 to the 6 Plus because of its larger screen. The line of hundreds of people outside the Apple store in central Sydney snaked around the block, then down a parallel street before extending three more blocks. At the middle of the line, Xin Liu, 25, a student at the Sydney Institute of Interpreting and Translating, had waited more than 11 hours to buy her parents a new phone. “When I came here, I thought there would be about 500 people,” she said. “But someone counted and there were already 800. I was really surprised.” In Hong Kong, hundreds lined up at the Apple store at the IFC mall to collect their new iPhones after registering online in advance. They were met by about a dozen protesters from Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour holding up signs that said “iSlave 6. Still made in sweatshops” and “Throw Away the Bad Apple.” With Apple yet to say when the iPhone 6 will be available in China, Chen Daihui and Yao Haitao traveled from the mainland to Hong Kong to try to secure the devices. After failing to register online, they were both disappointed. “All I wanted was to go inside and have a look, and they wouldn’t let me do that,” said the 32-year-old Chen, who traveled from Fujian. “Looks like I will just have to wait.” The Apple store in Tokyo’s Shibuya area had about 600 people lined up an hour before opening, while the one in nearby Omotesando had about 1,000. They included a woman near the front of the line wearing a Steve Jobs mask, carrying a red apple. “The most important aspect of first weekend iPhone sales are the long lines and the ‘record breaking’ sales numbers that generate the free press for the company,” Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG LLC, wrote in a note to investors yesterday. The buzz over the smartphones has been high since Cook unveiled them at a Sept. 9 event. When the iPhones became available for pre-order a week ago, they racked up a record 4 million reservations in the first 24 hours and surpassed earlier releases. Resellers said users are trading in older phones to make room for the new iPhones, while some phones are being offered on Hong Kong’s black market for US$3,600.

• published: 20 Sep 2014
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