SAN FRANCISCO – Apple's stores attracted long lines of shoppers for the debut of the latest iPhones, indicating healthy demand for the bigger-screen smartphones.
The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus went on sale Friday in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, Germany, Britain and the United States. Across the world, the scene was similar to the one at Apple's store on Fifth Avenue in New York, where police officers put up barricades as a 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 gadget.
Apple's iPhone rollout is the most important event this year for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. Chief Executive Tim Cook is counting on the handsets to maintain Apple's sales growth. The devices generate more than half of the company's annual $171 billion in revenue and precede a swath of other products, including new iPads and Apple Watch. The iPhones have screens of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, compared with 4 inches for previous models — helping Apple appeal to new consumers.
In central Paris, Elias Kartout was among hundreds 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 hadn't made 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.
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.
"Anything new is exciting even if it's a paint job," said Fourie, 39.
In downtown San Francisco on Friday, the line outside of the Apple store had grown from a dozen or so people 24 hours earlier to hundreds of people wrapping around three city blocks. In the opposite direction, another line formed for people with reservations to buy a phone. The two lines almost met to form a square.
The buzz 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.
