'Occupy' protesters descend on iPhone 5 debut (photos)

About 13 self-described members of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement late last night joined the line of people waiting to buy the iPhone 5 outside the flagship Apple Store in New York City.

Members of the group were photographed talking shortly after police set up crowd-control barricades.

OWS began as a protest against corporate greed, corruption and the influence that big business supposedly has over government.

The people who spoke to CNET said they plan to protest Apple's labor practices and the culture of waste and consumption in the United States.

They did not, however, identify what form the protest would take.

Apple has been criticized over the past year or so for harsh working conditions that exist at the factories in China where iPads and iPhones are built.

Shiloh Coral says she joined the iPhone 5 line in Manhattan to protest "consumer culture." She said society would benefit much more if people invested in education and helping low-income families rather than spending money on status symbols.

Hazem Sayed (right with the hat), CEO of Vibe, a social-networking service, holds the No. 1 spot in line at Apple's flagship store in Manhattan known as the Cube. He said earlier this week that some of the people in line joked among themselves that this was their version of Occupy Wall Street.

They called it Occupy Apple.

It's unlikely that Sayed could know that actual OWS members would arrive and name their protest Occupy Apple.

Employees at the Cube, the nickname given to Apple's 5th Avenue store, hardly took notice of the protesters.

Some busily cleaned the store's glass panels, something they do after it rains.