Oyarzun arrived Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Apple store in Salt Lake City, slept overnight on a strip of grass behind The Gateway shopping center, and was at the head of the line early Friday awaiting 6 p.m. when the gadget went on sale.

And when Oyarzun, the first customer to enter the store, had his iPhone in hand, a wide smile spanned his face.

"It was worth it. I waited months," he crowed. "This is amazing. It's crazy. The hype is so huge."

The object of his desire was a sleek hand-held super cell phone, encased in scratch-resistant glass and supplied with a mobile phone, widescreen iPod, e-mail terminal, wireless Web browser, camera, alarm clock, calculator and organizer. The price is $499 for the 4-gigabyte model. Oyarzun opted for the 8-gigabyte version, which cost $599.

The hype that gripped Oyarzun began in January, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the company's intention to enter the mobile handset market.

By late afternoon Friday, more than 130 determined customers were waiting in triple-digit heat for the store to reopen after it had closed at 2 p.m. to prepare for the sale.

Guarding the doors were black-garbed employees of Ronin Risk International, a Los Angeles-based security company hired to keep the crowd under control. One guard said his orders were to let only 20 customers into the store at a time.

Eight minutes before 6 p.m., a cheer went up inside the store. Three minutes later, 15 black-shirted employees led by manager John Ford ran onto the sidewalk, as customers clapped, cheered and exchanged high-fives.

"I hope you guys are ready for this. It's been hot!" Ford said.

A minute later, large black sheets covering the store's windows came down. Inside, more Apple employees cheered. A digital clock ticked down the final two minutes. And when the doors were finally pulled opened, Oyarzun, followed by a crowd of determined shoppers, TV cameras and reporters, raced inside.

One of the first customers was Greg Delgado, 20, who forked over almost $1,200 in cash for two iPhones. Delgado arrived at 3 a.m. to secure a place near the front of the line.

His motive was pure business: Delgado and a friend, John Tran, each had been paid $300 to stand in line. They had been hired to buy four phones.

"It was really hot during the day. But it was fun because of friends," Delgado said.

Mike James, 42, an account manager for a gaming company that helped develop Microsoft's Xbox video game, bought two iPhones. One is for himself; he plans to sell the other phone.

"I've wanted one because I've wanted a miniature computer. Apple came out with the Newton years ago, and I've wanted something similar," James said.

The Newton was an early line of personal digital assistants that Apple sold between 1993 and 1998. It was loaded with handwriting recognition software, as well as a calculator, time-zone maps and other productivity tools.

"The Newton was ahead of it's time. This is right at its time. It's perfect," James said.

High temperatures didn't dissuade, Phil Windley, a Brigham Young University computer science professor and former chief information officer for the state of Utah.

"I think it's kind of fun to do this," Windley said. "I could have waited until Monday, but it seemed like something fun to do."

Though Windley thinks the iPhone is the first handheld computer done completely right, he won't be surprised if it has a few bugs that need to be worked out.

"It will probably disappoint me in some way. But that will give [Apple] an opportunity to sell me another one later," he said.