By 7.30am, about 25 people in total were queued outside Telstra, Optus and Vodafone stores in Wollongong, which opened early at 8am for the release of the new wonderphone, the iPhone 4S.

The new phone has a faster processor and upgraded camera and thanks to the wonders of time zones, Australia is the first country where it has gone on sale.

First out the door of the Telstra store in Crown St Mall, new phone in hand, was Kiama’s Mick Stoboi.

The 23-year-old University of Wollongong student had taken time out of writing his thesis, arriving at the mall at 7.10am to secure his place in line.

He said he had previously owned an iPhone 3GS, released in 2008, and had been keen to upgrade to the latest and greatest model.

In Sydney, brother and sister duo James and Tamsyn Vohradsky, of Wollongong, had been camped out in front of Apple’s George St store since 11.30pm Thursday night.

James, who studies medical and radiation physics at UOW, described himself as an "Apple fanatic" and "fan boy" and said he had owned two iPhone 3G smartphones, one 3GS and an iPhone 4.

Despite their early arrival, they were only about half way down a line that snaked hundreds of metres down the street by early this morning.

An Apple representative estimated about 400 people were in line at about 7.50am, 10 minutes before doors were due to open.

Apple expects to sell millions of the phones, which will sell outright from $799 for the 16GB version or on two-year contracts starting at $44 a month.

Yesterday, Illawarra iPhone fanatics told the Mercury they could hardly wait to get their hands on the new smartphone.

Woonona's Aaron Woznicki reserved his days ago and will be waiting for a courier to arrive in the next few days.

The 32-year-old has owned every version of the smartphone, including the original iPhone which was never officially released in Australia.