DES PERES -- Scores of people began waiting in line before sunrise Thursday for Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone.

"I'm kind of a techy person who loves techy stuff," said Malinda Hagenhoff, 37, who drove from her home in Jefferson City last night to be among the first in line.

From the Apple Store at West County Center in Des Peres to the Wal-Mart in Arnold, some customers began lining up before 4 a.m. to be among the first to buy the iPhone 4.

Some of the people in line at the Arnold Wal-Mart had started their day off at the West County mall's Apple store. But they were told at the Apple store that about 500 people were in line and only about half as many phones were available, so many of the people started calling around to find where else they might go. Some wound up at the Wal-Mart.

Tyler Woods, 20, of south St. Louis, came with two friends. "This has to be some kind of miracle" when he arrived in line in time to get a phone at Wal-Mart. He was sweating, panting, hugging friends.

Back at the Apple Store at West County Center, two lines were formed. One for those who had pre-ordered the iPhone; the second line for those who hadn't.

At 7 a.m., when the Apple Store opened, Hagenhoff was the 30th person in the line that had formed for those who hadn't pre-ordered. It was moving slowly. By 9:15 a.m., she was still waiting.

Hagenhoff is an ultrasound technician who happens to have Thursdays off work, so she, her twin sister, her 15-year-old daughter and the daughter's boyfriend came in last night. They arrived at 11 p.m. in the West County Center parking lot, but were told by m all security they couldn't park there overnight. So they drove around, found other lots to park in, and the daughter got some sleep. But not Hagenhoff. By Thursday morning, she was going on 24 hours without sleep.

She got back to the mall at 5 a.m., and the mall doors opened at 6 a.m. and she was among about 150 people waiting, she said. The Apple Store opened at 7, she said.

Hagenhoff already owns the Apple 3Gs phone. She's had it about a year. But she wants the newest version. She's heard it is going to be better all around, including faster and with a better camera.

The Associated Press reported that thousands lined up outside stores in Tokyo, Berlin, New York and elsewhere. The iPhone 4's launch began in Japan and moved across France, Germany and the U.K. before going on sale in the U.S. at 7 a.m. in each time zone.

Unlike past launches, there were worries about limited supplies after more than 600,000 people rushed to pre-order iPhones on the first day they were available, prompting Apple and its U.S. carrier, AT&T Inc., to stop taking orders for shipment by Thursday's launch. On Apple's website, new orders weren't promised for delivery until July 14.

AT&T stopped taking pre-orders entirely and won't have any iPhone 4s for people who didn't reserve them until June 29. That means people who didn't place an iPhone 4 order had to line up outside Apple stores Thursday in the hopes of snagging one on a first-come, first-served basis. Apple won't say whether it believes it has enough iPhones on hand to avoid disappointing those would-be buyers.

 

The Associated Press and Robert Cohen, Kim Bell and Matt Franck of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.