[NewsPoster]

At 10 minutes before the iPhone 5 went on sale this morning, some 820 people were in line at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City, says Fortune. The site adds that the line was still growing at a rate of about six per minute, and that the event was covered by numerous reporters; nine TV satellite trucks were on-scene. The first person in line was Hazem Sayed, one of the people promoting a company called Vibe. Some other people in line were sponsored by companies like Gazelle, OtterBox and BuyBack. OtterBox had a yellow tent sitting outside the store.

A group of 20 Occupy Wall Street activists who were present in the line are said to have disappeared at 6PM Thursday night. City police at one point handed out leaflets to people in line, encouraging them to register the serial numbers of their phones. New York has had a problem with subway iPhone thefts, and the day of an iPhone launch can be particularly dangerous. Fortune contrasts today's lineup with that for the iPhone 4S, which only saw about 400 people. iPhone 5 demand is still below that for the iPad 2 though, which saw 1,200 people in line.

[mr100percent]

Interesting, how do I register my phone?

[testudo]

Gee, I'm sure none of those people in line were there because of the reporters. Nope.

[mr100percent]

Usually the people IN LINE are buying iPhones, and the people there because of reporters are outside of the line, handing out flyers, staging protests, etc. If you were in the line itself only because of a reporter, you're in a colossal waste of time. And that's coming from a guy who was present at the original iPhone sale just to watch the spectacle.