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After a six-month wait and 27 hours in line, Jim Reich could finally go home, fire up his computer and activate his new iPhone.

"It feels great. I'm not going to eat or anything," Reich said after being the first to leave the Apple Store in ABQ Uptown on June 29 with the newest hot gadget.

The device, which combines a cell phone with Apple's blockbuster iPod music player and a personal digital assistant, has been eagerly awaited by Apple fans nationwide. Since the phone was announced by Apple founder Steve Jobs six months ago, thousands of people like Reich anticipated the iPhone's nationwide release Friday night.

Said Reich, "I couldn't believe it the first moment I grabbed it."

Between 250 and 300 people visited Albuquerque's Apple Store during the first hour of iPhone's release at 6 p.m. After every customer's departure, store employees cheered, congratulating them for their purchase.

George Potapczuk, who had waited with Reich since 3 p.m. June 28, calls himself an "Apple fan," and has seven Macintosh computers and two iPods. He took the day off work to camp outside the store and become one of the first people to use the revolutionary cell phone.

"It is going to change the way computers and phones are used," Potapczuk said.

He said he was especially excited about the visual voice-mail feature that allows users to go directly to any of their messages by touching the screen to choose the one they want to hear.

Brandon Gregoire could hardly assimilate all the things the device could do as he played with a sample phone at the Apple Store. He had already purchased one, and was waiting for his girlfriend to come in and buy one for herself.

"It is basically perfect," Gregoire said. "It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life."

Although Apple products have gained a distinct reputation in the consumer electronics market since the first were sold in 1977, some people said they bought the iPhone for the sake of buying. Lena Duran openly declared herself as one of them.

"Everyone wants one, so I am going to get one," Duran said.

She was moving out of Albuquerque on June 29, but spent most of her last day in town in line outside the AT&T store in ABQ Uptown. The telecommunications giant teamed with Apple and is the only cell-phone service available for the the new phones.

Emily Peter will start her college experience with the new iPhone. "I like the touch-screen pad," Peter said. Users touch the screen to choose functions, enlarge or shrink photos on the screen, select messages and the like.

Peter, who enrolled in the athletic training education program at the University of New Mexico, is buying the cell phone with the money she got from her high school graduation.

But others working or shopping at ABQ Uptown on June 29 thought the iPhone mania verged on the absurd.

"Paying $600 for a phone is kind of crazy," Bryant Wattier said.

Added Ronald Garcia, "I wouldn't wait in line for a phone."

Chris Trujillo was not among the naysayers.

"The money is worth everything it does," said Trujillo, who started waiting outside the AT&T office at 4 a.m. Friday.

Molly Maxton agreed. "I am going to be able to combine three devices into one," Maxton said referring to her Palm Pilot, iPod and cell phone.

Alexis Stanke, who works at Eclipse Aviation, was undecided about buying the four-gigabyte version for $499 or the eight-gig for $599, but she was sure about spending her money.

"I never had a phone I enjoyed using, and Apple Inc. is fond of making products well designed and easy to use," Stanke said

The first version of the phone is not perfect, she said, "but iPhone is an improvement of what is currently available. It has a better interface design than everything else out there."

Not everyone who bought the phones was a 20-something techno-geek. Mary Foley, 64, said after standing in line for her phone on a hot afternoon, "I want to go and stand in front of an air conditioner."