Many arrived very early outside Apple stores in major cities like Paris, New York, Tokyo and the like.
Even in Harrisonburg, Va., a college town of about 60,000, there were lines to buy the new iPhones outside the AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores, which sit across the street from each other.
Instead of the hundreds of buyers waiting overnight in the big cities, these lines each had less than 30 people waiting for 8 a.m. openings, but the first people in line still did show up as early as 4 a.m. in the foggy darkness. One man even arrived even earlier but slept in his car.
For Darlene Perez, waiting in line meant she could buy both versions of the new iPhone immediately. She arrived well before the 8 a.m. opening at the AT&T store and was 15th in line to buy iPhone 5C's for each of her parents (in blue and floral pink) and an iPhone 5S for herself.
Why did she have to get the phones the very first day they were available and arrive so early to get in line? "I always upgrade my iPhones and I really love Apple products," she said.
She said the iPhone 5C's were ideal for her parents since each would cost only $100, plus a two-year contract. That's $100 less than she would spend on her iPhone 5S. "For only $100, it means less if I have to replace one," she said.
Perez, who works at one of the many poultry processing plants in the area, uses her older iPhone 5 mainly for Internet access and to get 100 to 200 work emails a day. AT&T has good LTE service in town, a big advantage, she noted.
Being one of the first to get new iPhones wasn't that difficult in a small town, since she would have been up early anyway, Perez said.
Even so, she admitted that she knows Apple has her firmly in its product marketing and upgrade grip. "Apple is just sitting back and making money," she said, smiling and pointing to the others in line.
The 19 early arrivals at the AT&T store were hoping the initial supply would last. Several said they had called all week and were promised that at least 20 would be on hand at the start of the day and more would be available before closing. The only iPhone 5S on hand at the start was a slate gray model and store managers wouldn't comment on the size of their supply.
Angela Rush, an intelligence analysis major at James Madison University, was among the first to buy one of the iPhone 5S's with the gray back, which she proudly showed off next to her beat-up and cracked iPhone 4.
"I wanted 32 GB up from my 16 GB iPhone 4 -- mainly for storing music," she said. "I like country."
Rush had dropped the iPhone 4 twice, resulting in many cracks on the display. Even so, it continued working for two years so she was eligible for the iPhone 5 upgrade. This time she made sure to buy a white protective case, and drop protection for $10 a month.
Tim Cook visited his local Apple Store in Palo Alto, California, to watch the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C go on sale on September 20, 2013.
Small and midsize businesses are moving to the cloud to host their communications capabilities. Learn how enterprise-quality phone benefits, online management, conferencing, auto attendant, and ease of use are built into a system that is half the cost of a PBX.Read now.
@matthamblen or subscribe to 
Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.