Many of the 300 or so people lined up outside the Apple Computer Store in South Hills Village on Saturday morning waiting for the 10 a.m. grand opening were Apple devotees who had come to experience the thrill of a grand opening and to get a free Apple T-shirt.

But for Monte Nutzman, 54, who was first to enter the store, the festivities were old hat. He's attended so many grand openings of Apple stores around the country that he's lost count of them. Saturday marked the third time he'd been first in line.

"It's just something that I like to do," said Nutzman, a UPS employee from West Des Moines, Iowa, who owns Apple desktop and laptop computers and an iPod. Among the grand openings he's attended were those in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and his hometown.

Nutzman happened to be in the area celebrating a granddaughter's birthday in Morgantown, W.Va.

While others in the crowd were clapping and cheering and smiling for Apple employees who were photographing the line, Nutzman was using his own camera to record the moments of Apple history.

Afterward, inside the store, he photographed people as they tried out display models of computers, iPods and other electronic equipment set up around the 4,000-square-foot square store. He was hoping to get some of his photos published on Apple fan Web sites.

Right behind Nutzman, who arrived at the mall at 7 a.m., were friends Joe Lipinski and Logan Lockhart, both 16, of Sheraden, who are students at the City Charter High School and self-proclaimed "average geeks."

"We love Apples and the [McIntosh] to no end," Lipinski said.

"Because they just work, they work so good," Lockhart said.

During their 2¹/₂ hour wait in line, the boys listened to music on their iPods and checked news headlines on an Apple iBook computer, which worked through the wireless Internet service Apple provided .

Lockhart was anxious to try out an iPod Nano, Apple's newest MP3 player, which it describes as pencil thin but able to hold up to 1,000 songs. A number of them were on display in the store for demonstrations.

Just before the big moment when the doors would open, Apple employees in their black Apple T-shirts and blue jeans formed lines about 12 deep on each side of the door and started to clap their hands. Then out came manager John Anker to welcome the first throng of the crowd through the tunnel of clapping employees and into the store.

The crowd had been kept between ropes by security guards who were on duty early Saturday.

South Hills Village Marketing Manager Georgeann Koumaros said the grand opening drew more people than others in recent history. "We are excited to have Apple here," she said. "It will be good for the area."

Though the crowd waiting for the doors to open was large for a store opening at the mall, it was small compared with others Apple has seen. A crowd of 7,000 formed outside of the grand opening in Tokyo in November 2003, and some 2,800 gathered for the grand opening in Osaka, Japan, a year ago. The grand opening of the Chicago store drew a line of about 4,000 people on July 3, 2003.

Those numbers are impressive for any retailer but more so for Apple, which doesn't advertise its grand openings. Word of mouth, e-mail and information on fan Web sites is the way the news gets out.

"We never have to advertise an Apple store," Anker said. "They are advertisements unto themselves. The only thing we ever give out is a T-shirt. Nobody gets in line for any other retailer like they do for us."

Anker said part of the draw to grand openings was for Apple die-hards to be around others like themselves.

That was confirmed by Nick Dastolfo, 22, of Lower Burrell, an information technology student at Duquesne University.

"I wanted to be here to see all of the emotion. This has really lived up to the hype. There's a lot of happiness here," he said.

Anker said after the store opened, the line remained about 300-people deep until about 1:45 p.m. After that time, there was no longer a line but the store was filled until closing at 9:30 p.m.

The South Hills Village store is the second in the Pittsburgh area. The first opened a year ago on Walnut Street in Shadyside.

The South Hills location makes it easier for those in the area to buy accessories, keep track of Apple's latest technological gadgets and get help and advice on any of Apple's products.

Martha Dycus, 78, of Upper St. Clair, stood in line outside of the store wearing a T-shirt that read "Silly Sassy Granny." Dycus said she'd been checking the mall almost daily recently to make sure she didn't miss the opening.

Dycus said she organized her entire life with her Apple computer equipment.

"One whole end of my family room is devoted to Apple products, a computer, printers, scanner. "I've got my whole grocery store entered into a database and I go through and check off what I need to make my grocery list."

She keeps lists of important dates and appointments in her computer and enjoys chatting at 9 each evening with friends she has organized in a chat room.

Rob Morrison and his daughter, Lyndsey, 11, of Mt. Lebanon, used to make the trip to Shadyside. But Saturday, Lyndsey was busy making up songs with the help of software on an Apple McIntosh.

Morrison said his family owned two Apple desktop computers, two laptops, an iPod and an iPod mini.

"We are definitely devoted to Apple computers," Morrison said. Like many of the customers at the grand opening, Morrison said his family's dedication to Apple came from the ease of using its computers and the fact that they aren't affected by viruses and spyware, which are generally written to impair Microsoft products.

Part of the reason Morrison came to the grand opening was to try out some of Apple's newer equipment. But another part was, like others there, to be a part of the event and be surrounded by other Apple addicts.

"It's kind of a cult thing," he said.