HE USED to hate Apple products. But over time, 27-year-old Joel Pan was won over by the sleek designs and functionality, and he has since bought an iMac desktop and three iPod music players.

At the stroke of midnight, Mr Pan, who calls himself 'kinda' an Apple fan, will also be Singapore's first 'official' iPhone user, having queued nearly a whole day for the privilege.

Mr Pan, who works for an American technology firm, had taken half-day leave, arriving at SingTel's Comcentre building at about 12.30pm in hopes of being the first in the queue.

He decided to hit the queue early 'for fun ... while I'm still young and have that geek passion,' he said.

Mr Pan had previously queued up early for Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows 98 launches, although he was not the first in line at those events.

Besides Mr Pan, there are four others in the earlybird queue, although SingTel expects more to join the line in the evening, after office hours.

To ensure 'a good customer experience', said a SingTel spokesman, all collections are by prior appointment. It expects 'several' thousand collections from midnight till Friday morning at its Comcentre headquarters.