Apple's iPhone draws hordes again

TOKYO/LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters): Apple Inc's new iPhone debuted with a splash around the globe, spurring thousands to queue around city blocks and snap up the last gadget unveiled during co-founder Steve Jobs' life.

It has been reported that the number of units pre-ordered for the iPhone 4S far outnumbered that of its predecessor, the iPhone 4. TIME magazine has captured the frenzy at some Apple Stores as the phone goes on sale - the queues, the enthusiasm, the elation. All pictures here are borrowed from Time.com

London, Oct. 13, 2011
Fans wait outside the Apple Store on Regent Street in London on Oct. 13, 2011, for the launch of the iPhone 4S.

London, Oct. 14, 2011
Apple fans queue up for the debut of the iPhone 4S at the Apple Store in Covent Garden in central London on Oct. 14, 2011.

Tokyo, Oct. 14, 2011
A man wearing a mask of Apple founder Steve Jobs stands in line in front of an Apple Store in Tokyo to buy an iPhone 4S on Oct. 14, 2011.

London, Oct. 14, 2011
An Apple fan poses with all the iPhone 4S mobile phones she bought at the Apple Store on Regent Street in central London on Oct. 14, 2011.

London, Oct. 14, 2011
Luke Peters holds the new iPhone 4S outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden, London, on Oct. 14, 2011.

London, Oct. 14, 2011
Carmen Shippy, far left, the first person in line to buy the newly released iPhone 4S at an Apple Store in Clarendon, Va., high-fives staff as she leaves the store on Oct. 14, 2011.

Are you contemplating getting one too?