Man drops his new iPhone from Eaton Centre balcony. Did it survive?

Dmitriy Sukhov was the first out of the Apple store at Toronto’s Eaton Centre with a new iPhone 6s. Minutes later, he was dropping his $1,000 phone off the third-floor balcony.

“Survived! Survived!” a friend shouted from the second floor below.

More than 200 people were lined up outside the Apple store before the doors opened at 8 a.m. Friday. The store’s employees clapped and cheered as the doors opened and customers filed in to pick up one of the company’s latest cell phones: the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

“It’s an amazing phone,” Sukhov said when he emerged from the store, new phone in hand. “I love Apple… (It) doesn’t matter what they do, they do it right.”

People began lining up outside the Eaton Centre store on Thursday morning.

Laurier student Spencer Higgins was the first in line outside the store on Friday. He said it was his first time waiting overnight for an iPhone and described the experience as “a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Brampton resident Stephen Jean, 21, said he was about fourth in line when he arrived at 10:30 a.m. yesterday. His father, Mac, works in Toronto and visited him four times during the day to bring him food and guard his spot so he could take bathroom breaks.

“If you don’t get it on the first weekend, chances are you won’t get it for weeks or months because they usually sell out really quickly,” Jean said about why he waited almost 24 hours for the phone.

The faster processor, better camera and new 3D Touch feature were also big draws of his new iPhone 6s Plus, he said. “I love to use my phone for everything. I’m always on it.”

The newest iPhone models follow a hugely popular design overhaul last year that added bigger screens.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus resemble last year’s versions but sport new features such as 3D Touch, which provides a shortcut for checking mail, taking pictures and other functions when the user presses down on the screen. Apple also added an improved camera and zippier processor.

In Canada, prices for the 6s start at $899, while the 6s Plus starts at $1,029 – plus tax. The new phones also come in a new colour – Rose Gold.

“It’s in pink!” said 19-year-old Rojin Shahba, a computer science student at Ryerson University who was in line outside the downtown Toronto store around 9 a.m.

Shahba, who lives in Richmond Hill, told the Star she woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get a new phone – an upgrade from her current iPhone 5. “It’s going to feel good. I’m going to go to my friends, like ‘Oh my God, I waited in line to get the new iPhone!’” she said.

But demand for the new iPhones appears lower than last year, “possibly meaningfully so,” said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities who studied Google search data, shipment times and third-party surveys. Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and RBC Capital Markets also raised concerns about iPhone growth.

Since 2013, iPhone sales have increased an average of about 35 per cent each quarter. In October to December last year, Apple sold 74.6 million iPhones—about 34,000 iPhone purchases per hour.

Whether Apple can match last year’s demand will be determined as handsets hit stores Friday in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico. They will go on sale in more than 130 countries by year-end, according to Apple.

But not everyone was enthusiastic about the launch – or the fact that so many people were willing to wait outside a store to shell out hundreds of dollars for a phone.

“If only people lined up like that for something that actually matters,” one woman tweeted. “You are waiting in line to give someone your money, just will never understand it,” another person said.

“These people do all realize you can order a new iPhone and have it delivered by mail, right?”

“They are Sheep!!! And Apple is laugh (sic) at them!”

Still, customers around Asia again lined up to be among the first to get their hands on the device. Stores in China—Apple’s largest market outside the U.S.—drew faithful buyers like Wu Kai, who picked up two phones from a packed Apple outlet at Beijing’s Xidan Joycity mall.

“Apple products are becoming family members,” the 17-year- old student said, explaining how he and his parents rely on every Apple product from the Mac Pro to the iPad. “It’s just good product that’s shaping our everyday life.”

In Sydney, hundreds braved heavy rain outside Apple’s city-centre store. Freelance technology journalist Lindsay Handmer, 32, waited for 18 days in front of the shop to be the first, showering at a local gym and using the toilets at a McDonald’s. He plans to auction his two new phones for a charity that helps the homeless.

Over in Berlin, about 400 people waited under clear skies on the main shopping boulevard Kurfuerstendamm. About 200 people waited outside Apple’s store on London’s Regent Street, then cheered and applauded as the doors opened. First customers sported beaming smiles and gave out high-five’s, hugs and handshakes while pumping their fist in the air and holding up their purchase proudly.

Back in Toronto, Brandon Faizal said he was excited to upgrade from his current iPhone 5. He also said he wanted to feel what it was like to line up to be one of the first to get the new phones.

“I just wanted to experience how it’s going to be,” said Faizal, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Toronto. “(It’s) more for the experience.”

With files from Bloomberg News