Updated 9am

A keen iPhone fan - Rutger Scicluna Galea - was outside the Sliema iCentre at 8pm, queueing up for the first iPhone X to come on sale this morning at 10am.

Sources said that only 30 of the €1,249 phone will be on sale in Malta as from today, on a first-come-first served basis.

A few days ago, the outlet warned on Facebook that "due to a world-wide supply shortage of the iPhone X, we will only have a few units in stock at our Sliema APR outlet this Friday. Because of the limited amount, we cannot encourage you to come and queue on Friday - you might be disappointed on the day."

"We do hope that supply will increase over the next few weeks and we will keep all our customers informed on our social media platforms as we receive more news.

"We apologise for not being able to satisfy the incredibly high demand on launch day as we understand how excited our customers are to get their hands on this stunning new iPhone."

This phone marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone and is positioned as a high-end, premium model intended to showcase advanced technologies, such as wireless charging, OLED display, dual cameras with improved depth sensing, and a face recognition unlock system called Face ID.

Read: Reviewing the most expensive mobile phone

The queue in Malta was nothing compared with the long lines formed outside Apple Inc stores in Asia early today as fans flocked to buy the new iPhone X, a turnout that contrasts with the more lacklustre launches for the past two iterations of the premium smartphone.

In Australia, around 400 people queued outside Apple's flagship store in central Sydney to pay A$1,579 ($1,218) for the 10th-anniversary model, which chief executive officer Tim Cook billed as "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone."

Just 30 people turned up for the September release of the iPhone 8, an incremental update of the iPhone 7.

The firm opened pre-orders on October 27 and has said demand was "off the charts." The handset features an edge-to-edge display designed for deeper colour rendition and an innovative camera for face-recognition identification.

Queues also formed in Moscow. Photo: Reuters

Analysts have expressed concern that supply issues might stop Apple satisfying early demand. The camera, for instance, has never before been manufactured in the volume Apple demands.

In Apple's Omotesando store in Tokyo, some 550 people were waiting in a line stretching to around 600 metres.

Lines also started to form outside Apple's New York City stores on Thursday evening, with a salesperson at one shop in the Upper West Side telling Reuters about 20 people had queued up so far.

The most immediately noticeable change to the iPhone X from previous models is the removal of the physical home button and fingerprint sensor formerly used for unlocking. Instead, the iPhone X is unlocked with a so-called Face ID system, in which the user looks into a depth-sensing camera.