Even though Apple shipped over one million iPhone 4S preorders, the retail launch of the new handset was greeted by long lines of customers waiting to get their hands on the new device. Australians were the first to see the iPhone 4S launch with long queues outside Apple stores across the country. Apple’s flagship store in Sydney where Samsung tried to ambushes iPhone 4S launch by opening a makeshift store down the street and selling their Galaxy S II smartphone for just $2 also saw very big line. In fact the line was so big that four hours after launch there were still hundreds of people waiting outside Apple flagship store to get their hands on the new iPhone 4S.

In Japan the demand was so strong that mobile carrier Softbank had to temporarily stop contract applications because their systems were overwhelmed by service requests.

In Europe there were similar lines outside Apple stores and stores of their carrier partners. However, Reuters reported that in Paris the lines were smaller that last year, but in London and elsewhere the queues were as large as ever. On Regent Street in central London (Apple flagship store in London), the queue wound down a sidestreet and into a park, where Starbucks had a mobile stand to serve coffee.

In US the iPhone 4S launch again saw long lines with almost 1,000 people waiting outside Apple’s 5th Avenue store in New York. Similar lines were formed throughout the country. In Los Gatos, California Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was first in line outside Apple store (video below), as he has been for past few iPhone launches.

With this kind of excitement it looks like this iPhone launch will be the biggest for Apple. Some Analysts are even predicting that Apple will sell 4 million iPhone 4S units this weekend making it the biggest product launch ever. Check out the iPhone 4S launch in Sydney and New York in the videos below.