In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is reporting that iPhone 5 lines are up 83% over iPhone 4S, Jay Yarow reports for The Business Insider.

We have counted iPhone launch day lines at every launch since the iPhone 3G in 2008. We believe that based on our count of 775 customers in line for the iPhone 5 at the flagship 5th Avenue store, demand for the iPhone 5 is higher than any previous launch. We believe the line for the iPhone 5 was 70% greater than the line for the iPhone 4S despite Apple taking 2x as many online pre-orders. The trend of Apple product lines at the flagship store had been decreasing, we believe, due to the company taking a greater number of online pre-orders. For the three total stores we observed with Y/Y comps, the average line was 83% longer. Given the strength of the line for the iPhone 5, we are incrementally more confident in Apple’s ability to sell 8 million phones in the launch weekend. – Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Arline M." for the heads up.]