Apple fanboys tried to buy Apple's new speaker in the middle of the night - but it didn't go on sale until the morning

Getty/Justin Sullivan

• Apple's smart speaker, HomePod, became available for pre-orders on Friday for $350.
• Lots of people thought Apple would launch the device in the middle of the night, and either woke up early or stayed up late to get one on the first day it becomes available. 
• However, Apple didn't open pre-orders until the morning. 

Apple fans are a seriously dedicated bunch who want the latest Apple gear on the first day it's available.

They'll even wake up in the middle of the night to try to order a $350 speaker - even if there was no official word from the company to do so.

On Friday, Apple's HomePod went on sale, just as Apple promised. Thing is, lots of people were up and trying to order it at 3:01 a.m. ET - even though it didn't go up for sale until hours later.

Pre-orders for the Siri-enabled speaker started at 8:30 a.m. ET. 

The reason these people were frantically refreshing Apple's website in the middle of the night was because Apple has released other products at that time.

For marquee products like the iPhone X, which was expected to be in short supply, Apple opened preorders at exactly 12:01 a.m. PT. 

But Apple never said that HomePod pre-orders would start at a specific time - just sometime on January 26. 

Luckily, the HomePod doesn't seem to be in extremely short supply. Unlike the iPhone X, which sold out first-day preorders in minutes, people who order a HomePod as of the time of this publishing will still get one on the first day it's available, which is February 9.