Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak camps overnight for an Iphone 4S

APPLE CO-FOUNDER Steve Wozniak has queued overnight at an Apple store to be one of the first to buy the Iphone 4S.

In an unusual move, Wozniak arrived on a Segway and announced to American television network NBC that he would camp outside the Apple store on Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos from Thursday at 2pm until the store opened the next morning, which means he'll be waiting a good 16 hours to get his hands on the latest Apple gadget.

Wozniak won't be on his own, however, as four other people joined him at 2pm and countless others followed suit over the subsequent hours, eager to buy the Iphone 4S before it sells out.

The Apple co-founder said he would use the time spent queuing to catch up on his email on his Ipad and chat with fans, many of whom will be pleasantly surprised to find Wozniak joining the queue. Unfortunately for UK fans queuing all night for the device, we doubt any top Apple staff will be there to greet them.

Since Wozniak could easily get an Iphone 4S without camping outside an Apple store, and indeed has two new phones on the way to him already, it seems that his gesture is largely a publicity stunt to help ramp up sales.

On the surface it looks like a positive thing, getting out on the street with the fans, but it also hints that perhaps Apple's leaders are not so confident about how the Iphone 4S will do after how poorly it was received by investors and fans last week. If an Apple co-founder has to do what marketing is paid to do, that suggests things aren't altogether rosy in the Apple camp.

While this is a possibility, it is also not the first time that Wozniak has queued for an Apple product. In 2007 he queued for nine hours at the Valley Fair store in San Jose for the original Iphone launch, so it might simply be that he's just as big an Apple fan as his fellow customers.

The Iphone 4S goes on sale today. µ