NOVA.SCOTIA (CBC) - Christian Meagher faced a throng of photographers as he walked out of a Rogers Wireless store in Halifax Friday morning.

His purchase - the first iPhone sold in Canada - earned him his 15 minutes of fame.

"I'm sure there are other people who are much more deserving of being media stars, but it's kind of cool," he said.

Meagher, 29, finished his shift at the Halifax casino at 2 a.m., then he and his girlfriend headed over to the Halifax Shopping Centre to beat the lineup for one of the $200 smartphones.

To their surprise, they were the first ones at the Rogers store.

"We really assumed that there would be more people here, and we were the only ones," Meagher said.

The hype around Friday's launch of the iPhone 3G in Canada had been building. An earlier version of Apple's smartphone, which allows users to e-mail, surf the web and play music and video, had been available in the U.S. for a year.

There were howls of protests when Rogers Wireless released its monthly rate plans last month. Prospective buyers were angry with the limited data allowance and the mandatory three-year contract, the longest in the world. An online petition amassed tens of thousands of signatures.

Meagher was won over when the company announced a cheaper but limited plan just days ago.

"That's 100 per cent of the reason I'm here," he said. "It was fairly ridiculous before."

About 70 iPhone fans were in line by the time the store opened at 8 a.m. Two hours later, the smartphones were all gone.

Meagher said his iPhone is a birthday present from his girlfriend. With all the media hoopla, he hasn't had time to check it out.

"Everybody's taking pictures of it and everything, but I'm looking forward to some alone time with it," he said.

With files from the Canadian Press

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