Apple iPhone goes on sale in Japan
TOKYO --The new iPhone model went on sale in Asia Friday, making its debut in Japan after a 30-second countdown chanted by hundreds of people who waited -- in some cases for days -- in a line that snaked around the block.
Japanese carrier Softbank Corp. started selling Apple Inc.'s much-awaited cell phone at its downtown Tokyo store five hours before its other stores across Japan.
The countdown celebration, which included a digital clock display ticking away over the entrance, was part of a global rollout in 22 nations of the 3G, or third-generation, wireless connecting iPhone. The latest iPhone is an upgrade of the model that went on sale last year in the U.S. and several other nations.
Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong were the other Asia-Pacific locations getting the new phone. In the United States, phones will be available at 8 a.m. in each time zone.
"This is the year that the cell phone becomes an Internet-connecting machine," Softbank President Masayoshi Son told the crowd gathered at the store.
By Friday, the line that had been growing for days at the downtown store had reached about 1,000 people, even though signs had gone up that said the store had stopped accepting applications.
Exactly how many iPhones will be available is uncertain, fueling the hype about the Apple gadget.
Taichiro Nakamura, a 28-year-old filmmaker, showed off his brand new iPhone and said the first thing he did with it was call his girlfriend.
"I'm so happy," he said, adding that he had the iPod Touch portable music player and decided he wanted the iPhone, too. "I've been interested for some time."
Tomohiko Katsu, a 38-year-old banker, said he has rarely lined up for any product in his life but wanted to make sure he got the iPhone and got in line Thursday afternoon.
"All the features come packed in a compact machine," he said. "It's really small for a mobile PC device."
Katsu shrugged off the criticism already popping up from some Japanese that the iPhone may be a bit heavy and bulky compared to cell phones common in this gadget-loving nation.
The iPhone's capabilities are less revolutionary here, where people have for years used the tech-heavy local phones for restaurant searches, e-mail, music downloads, reading digital novels and electronic shopping. They tend to shrug off foreign models, such as those of Nokia Corp.
A report this week by Mizuho Securities Co. said the iPhone had the potential to get Japanese commuters to surf the Web more over reading or listening to music. The report said the iPhone's arrival could also change the relationship between manufacturers and carriers. Traditionally, carriers have had considerable leverage over manufacturers.
The latest Japanese cell phones have two key features absent on the iPhone -- digital TV broadcast reception and the "electronic wallet" for making payments at stores and vending machines equipped with special electronic readers.
But they don't have the iPhone's nifty touch screen or glamour image.
Another key difference is that the iPhone is designed to browse the Web in the much the same way computers do. The networks promoted by Japanese carriers, such as "i-mode" from NTT DoCoMo, are more closed than the Web. Such systems have allowed carriers to control services and charge fees.
Japan is home to powerful electronics brands such as Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s Panasonic, but its consumers are trend-chasers and have long adored Apple products such as the iPod.
Japan has about 107 million cell phones, or about one for every person. Many of the phones already are 3G, offering the speedy Internet access that the new iPhone will also deliver. The old iPhone used a relatively slow cellular network combined with the ability to use fast Wi-Fi hotspots.
Hundreds of enthusiasts lined up outside stores in New Zealand's main cities got their iPhones earlier at midnight Thursday.
"Steve Jobs knows what people want," Web developer Lucinda McCullough told the Christchurch Press newspaper. "And I need a new phone."
There has been some grumbling about prices in New Zealand, where Vodafone, the only mobile provider selling the iPhone there, is charging NZ$549 ($416) for the new iPhone unit and NZ$250 ($190) a month for a minimum two year connection plan -- NZ$6,000 ($4,550) over the two years.
The iPhone is selling in Japan for 23,040 yen ($215) for the 8-gigabyte model, while the 16-gigabyte version costs 34,560 yen ($320).
Apple plans to sell its 8-gigabyte iPhone for $199 in the United States and the 16-gigabyte version for $299. The company, based in Cupertino, Calif., says it has sold about 6 million iPhones since last year. It has set a goal of selling 10 million by the end of 2008. 