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On the line for the iPhone 4

At high noon Thursday, both the heat and anticipation were building as shoppers across the region - many of whom staked out their spots in line at 5 a.m. - saw their prize almost in reach: the new Apple iPhone 4.

At high noon Thursday, both the heat and anticipation were building as shoppers across the region - many of whom staked out their spots in line at 5 a.m. - saw their prize almost in reach: the new Apple iPhone 4.

At King of Prussia, nearly 500 people, some braced with umbrellas and chairs, others with little more than determination and new-made friends, waited in a quarter-mile queue outside the mall.

"We took turns creating shade for one another," said Crystal Davis, 21, of Yardley, as she accepted a free Auntie Anne's pretzel paid for by Apple. She was a relative latecomer: She got in line at 5:30 a.m., made it inside by 12:30 p.m. and finally claimed her phone about 2 p.m.

"They've been giving us everything: Starbursts, Nutrigrain bars, water bottles. The only thing they forgot was sunscreen," Davis said gesturing to her sunburned chest.

At the Cherry Hill Mall, lines were just as impressive for the device, which sells for between $199 and $299.

Analysts say it's too soon to gauge the new iPhone's success - except to say that like other Apple devices, it already seems to have generated an outsize reaction.

"They have done a great job of not just creating wonderful products, but also creating a mystique," said Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst at Nielsen Co. "Apple doesn't just have customers, it has fans."

Nielsen, who is awaiting a new iPhone he ordered, said he was impressed by "a whole slew of innovations" promised with the new Apple smartphone, including its higher-resolution display, its user-facing camera suitable for video chatting, its longer battery life, and its multitasking software.

"Like all the Apple devices, this is out of the ordinary," Entner said. "People are more passionate about this than anything else."

That held true at King of Prussia, where Sara Rose of Reading waited with her 2-year-old daughter, Emma, who was shaded in her stroller as she watched Peter Pan on dad's older iPhone model.

"She watches movies on it, TV shows. It's the only way we can get anything done," Rose said of Emma.

The family was particularly excited by the face-to-face feature on the new iPhone that enables videoconferencing between phones.

"My husband travels a lot," Rose said, "and my daughter likes to nod when she's on the phone, and you can't hear that, so this will be 10 times better."

The high-definition videos are also a plus, she said, because "it's a lot easier to tote a phone around than a camcorder when you're trying to catch a toddler in action."

Just ahead of her, Scott Silvestry, a heart surgeon in Philadelphia, showed new acquaintances photos on his current iPhone. Among them was a picture of a recently transplanted heart he had snapped in the operating room and a video of the echocardiogram he'd sent to a cardiologist.

"The technology has changed us completely," Silvestry said. "It allows us to communicate in ways we never could before."

As he swapped stories with those around him, Silvestry observed that "this is kind of a study in sociology. It takes you out of your usual cross-section of people you interact with and brings very different individuals together."

In Cherry Hill, Kym Durham, 47, of Collingswood, gave her friend a break by saving her place in line.

"I'm just being a good friend. HP people wouldn't do that, but Apple people do," she said, unable to resist a comparison to an Apple rival, Microsoft.

Durham said her friend (who did not want to be named because of an excuse she gave her boss for missing work) called her early in the morning and asked her to bring her food because she was stuck in a seemingly endless line.

"When I asked her what she wanted, she said, 'Thirty soft pretzels,' and I said OK." The pretzels went to the friends she'd made in line.

Nick DeCredico, 82, of Philadelphia, had one conclusion for his six-hour travail at Cherry Hill: "There is something loose up there."

Call him crazy, he declared, but he said he needs to be current.

"I've always been like this all my life," he said. "I'm just a curious kind of guy."