The front of the queue. Everyone ZDNet spoke to was waiting to purchase the iPhone 5S for themselves — there seemed to be no interest in the 5C — with the most commonly requested colour being gold. By 7.30am AEST, Apple had sold out of the gold 16GB 5S.
The queue, hundreds of people long, stretched along several streets. One group of people waiting in line had travelled all the way from Brazil to purchase the iPhone in Sydney. Many developers present were eager to try the new processor combined with iOS 7, which was released yesterday after being reviewed by ZDNet last month.
The police were on hand to keep the rowdy Apple fans in check.
The Apple Store during the countdown to launch at 8am AEST, with staff members lining the upper floors.
The first person at the Apple Store to receive the new iPhone 5S, Jimmy Gunawan, waited in line from 12pm AEST on Thursday until the store's opening at 8am AEST on Friday.
The flagship Telstra store in Sydney also hosted a launch party, with a clock counting down the minutes and seconds until the release. Telstra announced its plan pricing for the new iPhones earlier this week.
First in line at the Telstra store, Chris Maloney (left), starting lining up at 4pm AEST on Thursday, and spent the morning of his 31st birthday purchasing the 5S.
A Nokia Lumia user in the Telstra queue was obviously looking to upgrade to the iPhone.
The colourful iPhone 5C models were on display in the Telstra store.
The gold, silver, and space-grey iPhone 5S devices were also on demonstration in the Telstra store.