As expected, long lines for Apple's iPhone 5

Customers line up to buy iPhone 5 smartphone at Apple flagship store in Sydney, Australia Friday / Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Last Updated 10:24 a.m. ET

(CBS/AP) HONG KONG — In a now familiar global ritual, Apple fans jammed shops from Sydney to Paris to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone.

Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Asia, Europe and North America to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the smartphone.

In London, some shoppers had camped out for a week in a queue that snaked around the block. In Hong Kong, the first customers were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting "iPhone 5! iPhone 5!" and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.

The smartphone will be on sale in the U.S. and Canada at 8 a.m. local time, hours after its launch in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, France and Germany. It will launch in 22 more countries a week later.

The iPhone will also go on sale at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Wal-Mart, and AT&T, Verizon and Sprint retail outlets.

The iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and can work on faster "fourth generation" mobile networks.

In his review on CNET.com, Scott Stein calls the latest iteration "the iPhone we've wanted since 2010, adding long-overdue upgrades like a larger screen and faster 4G LTE in a razor-sharp new design. This is the iPhone, rebooted."

The drawbacks for Stein? "Sprint and Verizon models can't use voice and data simultaneously. The smaller connector renders current accessories unusable without an adapter."

CNET Review: iPhone 5

Customers lined up to enter the Apple Store in Munich, Germany, September 21, 2012 as the iPhone 5 went on sale.

/ CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images

The handset has become a hot seller despite initial lukewarm reviews and new map software that is glitch-prone. Apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.

In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News reported.

Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new iPhones by the end of September.

At 7 a.m. lines were already around the block at Apple's N.Y. flagship store on Fifth Avenue. When the store opened at 8 a.m., hundreds of customers high-fived Apple employees as they streamed through the doors, reports CBS Station WCBS.

Hazem Sayed, the founder and CEO of the social network Vibe, spent more than a week in line, and was surrounded by a scrum of reporters as he came out of the Fifth Avenue store this morning as one of the first owners of the new iPhone. "For me to have as a software, tech person, to have it on the first day and be able to work with it is an advantage," Sayed told WCBS. "This is like love at first sight."

Many went to extremes to be among the first buyers by arriving at Apple's flagship stores day ahead of the release. Sayed told CNET earlier this week he may never undertake another marathon wait again; over the past week, he caught a cold, suffered from sleep deprivation, and ate fast food the entire time.

And not all marathoners were in it for themselves: CNET reports people have been paying stand-ins to wait in line for them. CNET's Sumi Das talked to one hardy soul who's been camping out in San Francisco since Monday morning, who is being paid $1,500 to pick up the new phone for an anonymous buyer.

Outsourcing your place in the iPhone 5 line

In downtown Sydney, Todd Foot, 24, showed up three days early to nab the coveted first spot. He spent about 18 hours a day in a folding chair, catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the sidewalk.

Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot reviews it.

"I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our website," he said while slumped in his chair.

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In Paris, the phone launch was accompanied by a workers' protest — a couple dozen former and current Apple employees demonstrated peacefully to demand better work benefits. Some decried what they called Apple's transformation from an offbeat company into a multinational powerhouse.

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[SamsungsGalaxyFan]

I truly feel that these people that stand in line for days on in to buy anything that just came out are complete idiots. The only time I would do this is if I knew the world was coming to an end and I needed to stock up on supplies before its too late. But this is'nt close to that. We're talking technology that you can go and get at any given time. I mean hell they are still selling the origibal Iphone. Not only that but why rush out to stand in line for an iphone that will be replaced in less than a year? Some people enjoy throwing their money right out the window. I know several people that bought the new IP5 and they're already scratched or the scrteen is broken. Brother please!!!!!

[john92021]

Apple should raise it's prices, find out how much these idiots are willing to pay.

[velvet2112]

I think there is more to life than owing the latest iPhone...these people need to get a life.

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

In London, some shoppers had camped out for a week ...

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Stupid.

[skitbit]

these people are the ultimate biggest losers

[ladyraestewa]

Cuz we all know that if you go buy the phone a couple days later it's a completely different phone! Stupid people who place no value on their time. Seriously, wasting hours in line for something that you do not require because what,to brag about how you were one of the first? Incredibly stupid is always proud.

[albertj829]

Doesn't seem as though the downturn in the economy is affecting folks who want this phone. The price is ludicrous.

[kbbpll]

Clearly I'm not in a social circle where this kind of "bragging rights" matters to anybody.

[varigdc10]

This is stupidity to the tenth power.

[Rafterman11]

"When the store opened at 8 a.m., hundreds of customers high-fived Apple employees as they streamed through the doors, reports CBS Station WCBS."

High fiving? On buying a phone? Really?

Exactly the reason one should NEVER go to a first day launch. Not unless you want to look like a tool.