iPhone Launch Gets the Biggest Line Ever at Apple's NYC Store, Tim Cook Visits Stores in Calif.

And you thought it was going to flop.

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Admit it: you thought these newest iPhones were going to be a bust. If the lines outside of Apple's flagship NYC store today offers any indication, these iPhones are going to be just fine.

At 8 a.m. at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in NYC, the line hit an estimated 1,417 people waiting in line for the new iPhone 5S and 5C. This would be the biggest line outside of the store since the first iPhone was released back in 2007, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who has surveyed iPhone lines since it was first launched. Today's line beats out the previous longest line at the store during the release of the iPhone 4, and is an 83-precent increase from the number of people who waited for the iPhone 5. "The vast majority of iPhone buyers in line today appeared to be waiting for the 5S vs the 5C," Munster wrote in an investor note. 

At other stores around the country, though, lines were seen to be on track with previous years, or up slightly. Based on these lines, Munster estimates that Apple will sell between 5 to 6 million iPhones this weekend, with the iPhone 5S proving the most popular—though Apple is said to have limited quantities, especially of the gold 5S. Plus, people have to wait in line if they want a 5S, since Apple didn't offer any pre-orders on the device. Smooth move.

Meanwhile, at the Apple Store in Palo Alto, Calif., Apple CEO Tim Cook made some pit stops to visit and shake hands with people in line. Steve Jobs did this before, too, when the iPhone was released in 2007, and the launch of the iPad in 2010.

[via Mashable]

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