iPhone 5 mania: It’s a party as Apple faithful line up worldwide

The new iPhone 5 is available online, but the Apple faithful were more than happy to wait in line Friday to snap up the hot new device.

In New York, Chicago, Washington and elsewhere around the globe, iPhone aficionados spent the night sleeping on sidewalks just so they could be among the first in the door to buy the iPhone 5. The gadget boasts a thinner, sleeker profile than its predecessors.

Reviews of the iPhone 5 have been mixed. And the Android crowd is collectively rolling its eyes at all the predictable hoopla.

PHOTOS: iPhone frenzy means lines, high-fives around world

Not that iPhone fans would notice.

They were too busy using their “old� iPhones to brag on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms that they were poised to have the iPhone 5 in their hot little hands.

The atmosphere was downright party-like outside Apple stores around the globe. It helped, no doubt, that the iPhone 5 debut was happening on a Friday -- giving customers the weekend to play with their new toys.

Apple employees shrewdly added to that party atmosphere.

QUIZ: Test your Apple knowledge

Customers who waited for their turn to enter the Hong Kong store passed through a line of Apple employees offering up high-fives and cheers, according to the Associated Press.

Take a look at Greg Packer, 49, above. He’s celebrating the fact that he gets to enter Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. Crowds offered up a standing ovation when customers walked -- or danced, or pranced -- out of one Apple store, iPhone 5 held high to see.

There was a smattering of reports about stores being sold out of the new smartphone just hours after opening. Such news wouldn’t be surprising. Apple earlier announced that it sold out of its first batch of pre-orders within an hour.

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