Hundreds of Hawaii smartphone shoppers started their day Friday in the dark, scurrying to secure a place in line for the launch of the highly anticipated Apple iPhone 5 smartphone.

Victoria Artis and some of her children showed up at Ala Moana Center at midnight Thursday but were shooed away by security personnel. They later returned. Customers were allowed to line up beginning at 5 a.m. Friday, but by 4:42 a.m. nearly three dozen people were on the makai sidewalk near the Macy’s entrance.

At 6 a.m. Apple employees emerged from the store to greet customers with Starbucks coffee, bottled water and a variety of Costco muffins from rolling carts.

Later, another cadre of employees worked the line to assess customers’ needs, determine which carrier would be providing their service and whether they had decided on a two-tone color scheme, between white with silver or black and graphite. At the end of the line, an employee assured customers the supply of iPhone 5s would be sufficient to last through the day.

Apple staff had an in-store rally behind the closed glass doors, and then sales personnel poured out of the store to introduce themselves to the first people in line.

There was a loud and raucous countdown from 10, and the doors opened. The first 50 customers were ushered into the store exactly at 8 a.m. All were greeted by uproarious applause from additional Apple staffers inside the store.

The scene at Ala Moana Center closely resembled what had been happening around the globe as Apple began sales of its latest phone in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

Combining pre-orders and purchases at brick-and-mortar stores, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted this week, Apple will sell a minimum of 6 million iPhones through the weekend, with 10 million a possibility.

The iPhone 5 with a two-year contract sells for $199 to $399 depending on the amount of memory.

While lavishing praise on many of the phone’s features, some customers have complained about it being marred by nicks, and critics have denigrated its mapping capabilities, battery life and lack of a near field communication chip to enable wireless transactions. Apple on Friday released a statement regarding the mapping issue and said it is "working hard to make the customer experience even better."

But the negative reviews seemed to matter little to Apple’s army of true believers. As is common for these new-product extravaganzas, they flocked to the company’s retail outlets with a devotion bordering on religious fervor.

Hotel worker Nathan Lee was among the first customers out the door at Ala Moana with a small white Apple bag containing his newest prized possession. He has had every iPhone "since the first one," he said, often paying a premium for the upgrade.

Lee also was aware of the map-app controversy, but said he was not a big user of maps, so the problematic Apple Map was not enough to dissuade him from his latest purchase. He got the white, 64-gigabyte version, the maximum amount of memory, for enhanced application and gaming usage. Normally scheduled to work at night, he took the day off "so I can play with my new phone," he said with a laugh.

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

Marketing materials tout the new model as "the biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone."

However, it is more "evolution than revolution," to well-known local technology industry figure and Apple product enthusiast Ryan Ozawa.

Ozawa said he also was well aware of the phone’s most publicized downside, as the iPhone 5 is not compatible with the internationally popular Google Maps navigation system, as were previous versions. Apple created its own map application, which is being widely mocked in social media circles.

Also, Ozawa said that docking stations in people’s cars, home sound systems and the like are not compatible with the iPhone 5’s shortened connection port, necessitating the purchase of a $29 adapter.

He was No. 74 in line at the Ala Moana Center Apple store Friday morning and got into the store at 8:20 a.m.

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Star-Advertiser news services contributed to this report.

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