The painful wait is finally over for thousands of die-hard Apple fans, as the brand new iPhone 5S prepares to fly off the shelves in its first few hours of sale.
Shops opened this morning to snaking queues, bursting with people eager to get their hands on the latest Apple model in addition to its smaller, budget version, the 5C.
Some devotees had even been camped outside an Apple store in central London’s Regent Street since Monday evening – three and a half days before its release date.
Seventeen-year-old student Gad Harari had pitched himself at the front of the queue in a makeshift tent and claimed that he would not sell his spot for less than £1,000.
Talking about the new iPhone he spoke of its attraction and said: ‘I think it’s amazing. It’s cool, it’s new and it’s sci-fi.’
The two handsets were revealed last week much to the anticipation of the tech company’s worldwide followers.
The 5S comes in gold, silver or ‘space’ grey, while its other new functions include a fingerprint scanner.
However, many have had to walk away from stores this morning bitterly disappointed.
Shop workers had to walk down and give golden tickets to those in the queue, each with a unique number until they reached the maximum number of handsets the store actually had available.
Queues in Cardiff were so large this morning that one phone store sold out of its handsets five minutes before even opening its doors.
Twitter users have taken to the social media site to vent either their fury at losing out, their joy at obtaining one, or even simply bewilderment at the efforts some fans have gone to.
Mark Allman said: ‘#iPhone5S Crazy fool saying no to £500 for his place in the queue #crazyfool.’
The release comes amid criticisms over Apple’s new operating system, iOS 7.
Some have deemed it too hard to navigate, while many others struggled to even download it.
