Apple's iPhone XS and XS Max go on sale as lines outside major stores are hit and miss

Apple's iPhone XS and XS Max went on sale on Friday with the traditionally long queues outside stores missing in some flagship locations.

Outside Apple's flagship London store on Regent Street, about 25 people queued up as of around 6 a.m. local time. Some people were queuing up from 7.30 p.m. London time on Thursday.

The queue was significantly smaller than last year.

Outside the Orchard Road Apple store in Singapore the story was very different. Photos posted on social media show several hundred people waiting for the new devices.

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Dubai's Apple store witnessed a similar story.

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Despite the lack of people turning up to buy the latest iPhones in London, reception to the devices have been strong. Most customers CNBC spoke to in London were ready to purchase the iPhone XS Max which starts at £1,099 in the U.K. and $1,099 in the U.S.

Many people in the queue said the price was not a concern because of the important of the smartphone in today's world.

"You're using your phone everyday, you see it every time," Gowrishankar Palanivel, a buyer who had been in the queue since Thursday evening told CNBC.

Another customer who wishes to remain unnamed said that the iPhone is replacing many other gadgets that people may have bought.

"What do you use most to check your emails? Your phone not your laptop. You use it to keep in touch with everyone. Apple is putting everything into the phone so that's why the price is high," the person told CNBC Thursday.

The short queues in London could be attributed to a number of factors. Last year, the iPhone X was in short supply, so people wanted to get their hands on the device as soon as it was released in store. This year however, the iPhone XS and XS Max are not suffering delays. Also, the iPhone XR - the cheaper iPhone - won't be on sale until October, so customers wanting that device may have decided to skip the early morning queues.

Analysts are hoping that the new set of Apple devices can help the company continue to grow revenues and also the key metric of average selling price (ASP).

Counterpoint Research estimates that Apple will ship around 190 million units of the three new iPhones between September 2018 and September 2019. The analyst firm expects the XR model to account for around 50 percent of this, the XS about a third and the XS Max the remainder.

Many analysts have also raised their ASP estimates. Morgan Stanley said it expects an iPhone ASP of $793 in the year ending September 2019, up 6 percent year-on-year versus its prior estimate of $739. Apple reported an ASP of $724 in the three months ended June 30.

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