At 6:02pm, the eagerly awaited handset goes on sale with customers getting the chance not only to use it as a telephone, camera, web browser and MP3 player, but also to read excerpts from autobiographies from the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Lewis Hamilton.
Publisher HarperColins has signed the only deal of its kind between a book publisher and Apple for the iPhone, to make book extracts available to iPhone and iPod Touch users through the Safari browser or via Apple's new web apps site.
Users can browse extracts as well as listen to audio clips, either from the books or interviews with the authors.
Victoria Barnsley, chief executive officer and publisher of HarperCollins UK, said of the iPhone: "With its large screen and tactile nature, I believe it could be the breakthrough device for consuming digital product on the go and brings us closer to the ultimate e-book dream."
A total of 15 books are being made available for the launch, including 'Lewis Hamilton: My Story' and Gordon Ramsay's 'Playing with Fire'.
Others include: JRR Tolkien's 'The Children of Hurin'; 2007 Orange Broadband Prize winner 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Booker Prize-shortlisted 'Darkmans' by Nicola Barker; Jason Donovan's autobiography, 'Between the Lines: My Story Uncut'; and 'Next' by Michael Crichton.
Latest research by YouGov indicates that around 3% of the public are keen to buy the handset, which costs £269 and is only available in the UK through Carphone Warehouse, Apple and O2 stores and online.
As well as the UK launch, the handset is also being made available in Germany for the first time today. Although the German launch is also later today, some customers in Cologne have already picked up a handset, which were made available at midnight at the special opening of a T-mobile store in the city.
O2 has defended the deal it struck with Apple and said it will be a profitable one despite reports that it is giving Apple 25% of the revenue customers will pay for using the iPhone. The terms were part of the exclusive deal the two struck.
O2 beat Orange and Vodafone to win the iPhone deal and it is believed to have done this by undercutting its rivals. In the US, AT&T is only paying over 15% of revenues as part of its exclusive deal.
In the UK one gadget fanatic, Nik Fletcher, began queuing outside Apple's flagship Regent Street, London, store yesterday and is recording his experiences of the launch on a live webblog on unofficial Apple .
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