The new phone - which was unveiled last week - went on sale across Asia with mobile carriers reporting record demand, leading at least one to question Apple's supply capacity.
"It's thin and light. I've used Samsung before, but the operation, the feeling, of the iPhone is better," said Wataru Saito, a semiconductor engineer who had been queuing in Tokyo since mid-afternoon on Thursday with his suitcase, as he had a flight to catch on Friday.
Apple has booked more than 2 million pre-orders for the device in the first 24 hours, double the first-day sales of the previous iPhone 4S.
Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank, one of the two Japanese carriers selling the phone, said he was concerned that Apple does not have enough production capacity to meet demand.
Softbank and Singtel, Singapore's biggest mobile phone operator, said demand for the iPhone 5 had exceeded previous offerings from Apple, partly because the new phones could work on 4G networks that offered much faster data speeds.
KDDI, the other Japanese carrier offering the iPhone, said that it had already run out of the new phone. Australia's Telstra reported online pre-orders sold out in a record 18 hours and said it was discussing bi-weekly restocking with Apple.
Apple's rival and component supplier, Samsung, moved to crash the party on the eve of the phone's debut, saying it planned to add the new device to existing patent lawsuits against its US rival.
South Korea's Samsung and Apple are locked in a patent battle in 10 countries and the stakes are high as the two vie for top spot in the booming smartphone market.
Both companies are also raising marketing spending to promote their latest products ahead of the holiday sales quarter.
Apple is planning to unveil the iPhone 5 to markets such as Africa and the Middle East later this year. Exact availability dates for these markets are not known yet.
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