From left, Dane Gonsalves of Honolulu, Maria Stewart of Honolulu and T.J. Nii of Kunia were the first to line up at the Cingular store on Kapi'olani Boulevard at 6 a.m. today in hopes of being among the first in Hawai'i to buy the new iPhone, also being sold at Apple stores. RICHARD AMBO |The Honolulu Advertiser   More customers were seen waiting outside the Apple Store in Ala Moana Center this morning. RICHARD AMBO |The Honolulu Advertiser

By 8:15 this morning, more than 40 people had lined up at the Ala Moana Center Apple store — one of 18 Apple and AT&T (formerly Cingular) stores — in hopes of being among the first in Hawai'i to get their hands on Apple's new iPhone.

Edward Paul, a sales engineers for the Internet service provider PixiNet, was first in line. He arrived at 4:59 a.m.

Paul attempted to set up camp earlier, but an Ala Moana Center security guard kicked him out at 11:22 last night.

See Paul and his "camping stash" and others in line in this ADVERTISER VIDEO.

Retail stores will begin selling the phones at 6 p.m.

Sitting in line with a laptop, cell phone and iPod, Paul said, "If I'm going to splurge, I'm going to splurge on something that consolidates all three."

The iPhone, which integrates a wireless phone, iPod media player and Web access using touch-screen technology, costs $499 or $599 for respective 4- and 8-gigabyte models, plus a basic two-year AT&T service contract at $60 to $100 a month.

Paul, 34, calls the introduction of the iPhone the "color television of our generation." He predicted that in five to 10 years "people will say: 'Why do you have any other type of phone? Why would you go black-and-white when you can have color?"