Apple’s share price has surged to dizzying new heights, as an extraordinary frenzy over the tech giant’s latest iPhone convinced investors the company was worth buying.

Already by far world’s most valuable company, Apple hit its highest ever value on Thursday, and is now worth a spectacular $US868 billion ($A1.12 trillion).

That puts it tantalisingly close to becoming the first trillion-US-dollar company (it’s already there in Australian dollars), a race it is running with fellow tech giants Google and Amazon.

The iPhone X hit shelves for the first time on Friday, and Aussie consumers were among the first in the world to get their mitts on one.

Images from outside the Apple Store on Sydney’s George Street showed shoppers queuing up around the corner waiting for the doors to open, while a troop of t-shirt clad salespeople (‘geniuses’ as Apple calls them) counted down to 8am.

Crazy pic.twitter.com/w1mja4zD1C

— nick wray (@nickwray) November 2, 2017

It was a familiar scene, but one that has become less common in recent years as Apple has struggled to fire up the mania that characterised the earlier iPhone launches.

But something about the iPhone X appeared to have revived that mania.

At $1829 for the 256 GB model, or $1579 for the 64 GB model, it is the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever made. It also by far the most technologically advanced.

By Apple’s own admission, the biggest danger facing the company now is that supply of the phones will not keep up with rampant demand.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Friday, Apple’s finance chief Luca Maestri said high demand for the iPhone X had forced the company to ramp up production.

“Do we know when the demand curve is going to intersect with the supply curve? Frankly we don’t know,” he told the FT.

“Demand for iPhone X has been very, very strong. We are seeing very long lines in all our stores in Australia, Singapore and Japan.

“This is going to be the biggest quarter in our history,” he added.