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By CHIP CUTTER, AP Business Writer
      

NEW YORK (AP) - A faster iPhone with better software and an
improved camera went on sale in seven countries on Friday as
hundreds of buyers camped out for hours to be among the first to
get one.


      About 200 people were at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan
as the iPhone 4S went on sale at 8 a.m. Steve Wozniak, who created
Apple with Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first
in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif.


      Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died
last week, a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.


      Emily Smith, a 27-year-old user experience designer in New York,
checked in to the line on the location-centric social network
Foursquare. She got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: "Here's
to the crazy ones. ThankYouSteve."


      Others joked that the 4S model stood "for Steve."


      Many people came out despite the fact that they could have
ordered phones online and had them shipped to their homes or
offices.


      Apple and phone companies in seven countries started taking
orders for the iPhone 4S last Friday. Apple said Monday that more
than 1 million orders came in, breaking the record set by last
year's model, which was available in fewer countries and on fewer
carriers.


      The death of Jobs could be affecting sales. Marketing experts
say products designed by widely admired figures such as Jobs
usually see an upsurge in sales after their death.


      Una Chen, a 24-year-old banker, said she was just happy to swap
out her BlackBerry Bold for the new iPhone, particularly after a
BlackBerry outage affected her phone this week.


      "It's not good to have a phone and not be able to use it,"
Chen said.


      Wozniak got in line at the California store even though he
already had two new phones on the way. He told television station
NBC11 on Thursday that while he waited for the store's opening
Friday morning, he planned on getting caught up on his email and
chatting with fans.


      In the U.S., sales were beginning at 8 a.m. in each time zone.
They were available at Apple stores, along with those of the three
partner carriers, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon
Wireless. Some Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores and authorized
resellers also carried the phones.


      The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $199 in the U.S. with a
two-year contract. It comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Customers
can get 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399. Customers
have a choice of white or black.


      The phones also debuted Friday in Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, Japan and Britain. They are coming to 22 more countries by
the end of the month.


      The phone - Apple's fifth - has a faster processor and an
improved camera compared with last year's model. It has a new
operating system that allows you to sync content without needing a
computer. It also includes a futuristic, voice-activated service
that responds to spoken commands and questions such as "Do I need
an umbrella today?"


      However, some customers and investors were disappointed that
Apple didn't launch a more radical new model - an iPhone 5. It's
been more than a year since Apple's previous model was released.

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A faster iPhone with better software and an
improved camera went on sale in seven countries on Friday.

Shoppers line up for bite of new Apple iPhone

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