Apple gives cost of iPhone service, first fans show up

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc. said on Tuesday its hotly anticipated iPhone could cost as much as $3,000 with a required two-year service contract, but a handful of eager fans still lined up early to spend their money.

A small clutch of gadget enthusiasts staked out spots in front of Apple's store on New York's Fifth Avenue, days before the iPhone goes on sale on Friday evening 6 p.m. local time.

Plenty of potential iPhone consumers have said they would wait for Apple's next versions of the device to buy it, hoping for a lower price and faster network connection.

But industry analysts expect the first iPhone to sell quickly, at least in its initial months. Jessica Rodriguez, a 24-year-old student from the Bronx, seems to agree with them.

"I love everything Apple, and this is going to be something that goes down in the history books of cell phones," she told Reuters.

Rodriguez showed up on Tuesday morning with a chair, a sandwich and a large iced tea, taking the fourth place in line and braving an expected heat spell in the city.

Rodriguez plans to switch to iPhone's exclusive carrier, AT&T, just to use the device, and she will give her current Sprint Nextel phone to her mother.

"My dad thinks I'm crazy, but then he saw the commercial and said, 'I want it,'" she said of her 76-year-old father.