iPhone hype has gadget geeks camping and drooling

By Dana Ford

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With free wireless Internet, a hot dog stand and a few friends, Daniel Eran Dilger calculates he could survive for days outside a store in a dogged attempt to grab the latest must-have consumer gadget.

Dilger, a 33-year-old technology consultant from San Francisco, will camp outside an Apple store before the June 29 release of the iPhone, a cell phone with a touchscreen, music and video player and Internet browser with email capability.

"I might get my friends to camp with me," he said.

Dilger is typical of the sort of person likely to line up for the iPhone, according to Kaan Yigit, study director at the Solutions Research Group, a consumer research organization based in Toronto.

The typical iPhone buyer is a young man with a college degree and a higher than average annual household income, according to the group's online survey of buyers.

The iPhone, to cost between $500 and $600, will be available online and in Apple and AT&T stores.

Though expensive, Laura Knoll, 25, said she was willing to foot the bill for the phone because "it's everything in one."

"I'm totally stoked about it. I can't wait to get it," Knoll said, standing inside an Apple store in Glendale, a city adjacent to Los Angeles.