The hottest gadget of the moment — the iPad – was mobbed by technophiles at Apple Stores in Europe and Asia.

Buyers vied to wield their credit cards and this was evident by long lines snaking down streets in Paris, London, Tokyo, and Frankfurt.

From USAtoday.com:

At the Apple Store in Frankfurt, Germany, hundreds lined up — including a few who arrived as early as 3 a.m. Some said they’d arrived so early not because they wanted to own it first — but simply to get an iPad at all.

By 8 a.m., some 450 people squealed as Apple employees inside lowered a black curtain and began applauding. The glass doors swung open and people who had been given numbered tickets while waiting in line were let in by security to buy the device.

“I’m a bit embarrassed to be part of the masses, but the thing is, tonight it’s going to be sold out,” one man, who was not identified, told AP Television News.

In Tokyo, about 1,200 people lined up in the famous Ginza shopping district, chanting a countdown ahead of the store’s 8 a.m. opening. Excited buyers gushed over the tablets, saying they couldn’t wait to start using them.

In Paris, at the Apple Store in the commercial gallery underneath the Louvre, Cara Garisch, 26, a software developer from South Africa, said she planned to use it to read newspapers and surf the Web.

“It’s magic,” she said. “Even my mom can use it.”

Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, said earlier this month that it had sold one million iPad devices in the United States in just 28 days.