The iPhone 6, left, and iPhone 6 Plus. Zuma Press

Apple launched its latest iPhone in China on Friday morning. But unlike some pastdebuts for its new gadgets, the event was decidedly low-key.

About 100 customers waited in line Friday morning outside Apple’s store in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun shopping district, which opened its doors at 8 a.m. for buyers who had pre-ordered their new wares—the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. That was in part because the phone also went on sale at midnight elsewhere, including offices of China’s biggest telecom carriers.

Apple’s latest iPhone launch came weeks after an initial release in the U.S. and elsewhere. Dozens of Apple retail employees, dressed in blue t-shirts and jackets, lined up near the entrance and cheered as the first customers were allowed into the store—a ritual typically performed for new product sales.

“Liu Yi, number one! Liu Yi, number one!” they chanted, welcoming the 18-year-old college student as he scurried into the store, first in line.

“I’m feeling quite emotional,” Mr. Liu told reporters later, beaming with his new iPhone 6 in hand, still encased in its plastic-wrapped box.

Mr. Liu, like other customers, said the major appeal was the larger screen – a must in China and other Asian markets. Many were longtime iPhone-users who wanted an upgrade, forking out extra cash to get the larger iPhone 6+ and its 5.5-inch screen instead of the iPhone 6, which features a 4.7-inch display.

“It’s all about the screen size,” Sun Wei, a 28-year-old employee at a state-owned enterprise, who was queuing with a colleague to pick up their pre-ordered wares. He added, “this time the bigger screen makes it easier to watch movies, browse the Web, and of course, type.”

While some past sales had attracted thousands of buyers who queued overnight, only a handful of customers had showed up an hour before the store opened, outnumbered by the two-dozen private-security guards hired for the occasion.

The line grew steadily as the clock ticked toward opening hour, composed entirely of pre-order customers who arrived to pick up their new phones during their assigned time slots. Others who didn’t place pre-orders stood idly by, awaiting their turn to join the line.

The calm scenes stood in stark contrast to Apple’s previous product launches in China, which were decidedly raucous affairs. On the first day of iPhone 4S sales in January 2012, a delay in the opening of the Sanlitun store sparked a near-riot that led to a temporary suspension of sales in its stores across China. That followed a fight between customers and Sanlitun store employees in May 2011 that broke out during the release of the white iPhone 4.

“The security measures were good. No fuss at all,” said Li Simeng, a 20-year-old student who was among the first dozen customers to get their iPhones at Sanlitun on Friday. “This is my first product launch—it feels great.”