Self-confessed Apple nerd Cobey Parnell was third in line when the CBD store opened on Friday morning, eager to be one of the first in the world to get his hands on the new iPhone 6 Plus.

It was the fourth time he has camped out for a product release from the tech giant and the first outside Brisbane's CBD store, which opened late last year.

"It becomes more about the event and being part of something rather than a single hardware or device," he said.

"Apple is built on such a community. We all stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch product releases and keynotes and this is our way to be a part of it."

Mr Parnell joined two German backpackers who had camped out for a week to be among the first in the world to get their hands on the new iPhone upon its worldwide release on Friday morning.

The veteran of the Apple release queue had earlier in the week visited Moritz Gadow and Kimberley Lewerentz to deliver them camping chairs, before joining them late on Wednesday.

Ms Lewerentz said by Thursday morning, the hordes had started to arrive to join the trio.

"I went to take a shower about 9.30am and there were five people. Then I came back and there were 25," she said.

By Thursday afternoon there were about 70 people in the queue and it stretched up Queen Street and into the Macarthur Centre.

By Friday morning, there were hundreds awaiting the release.

Minutes before the store's 9am opening, the line out the front of the Queen Street store was about 400 metres long.

Those who had reserved their spots got to stand in a different queue, which was about a tenth of the size.

The crowd appeared to be mostly made up of students, but there were also professionals and parents with young kids in tow.

As the crowd waited patiently, nearly every member was busy tapping away on an iPhone or iPad.

Staff reporters