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Apple's new iPhone debut draws crowds and helicopters
Apple Inc.'s debut of its iPhone 3G drew thousands across Asia, creating a half-a-mile-long queue in Tokyo and forcing New Zealand stores to use security guards for crowd control.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 12:30 July 11, 2008
- Taichiro Nakamura was one of the lucky ones who got his hands on a new 3G iPhone on Friday morning
- Image Credit: Bloomberg
Tokyo: Apple Inc.'s debut of its iPhone 3G drew thousands across Asia, creating a half-a-mile-long queue in Tokyo and forcing New Zealand stores to use security guards for crowd control.
Minoru Hagiyama arrived at Softbank Corp's store on Omotesando, Tokyo, at 6:30am.local time to find about 1,300 customers already in front of him.
The first started camping out three days ago to buy the iPhone 3G, an update of Apple's handset that works on speedier third-generation wireless networks.
"I haven't owned a mobile phone in about five years, I just didn't feel the need, but this is different,'' said Hagiyama, 50, from Tokyo.
"I don't think of it as a mobile phone, more like a portable PC.''
The line of customers, mostly male, equipped with folding chairs, tarpaulins, packs of food and Apple laptop computers, stretched as much as 800 meters, or half a mile, from the flagship store of Softbank, Japan's third-largest wireless carrier, which won the right to sell the iPhone 3G in the nation.
The entrance to the store was besieged by reporters and camera crews, while helicopters circled overhead as an LED display above the door counted the minutes and seconds down to 7 a.m. when the handset went on sale.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is aiming at Research In Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry as the new iPhone goes on sale in 22 markets, almost quadrupling the markets for the handset.
When Hiroyuki Sano, who traveled 350 kilometers (220 miles) to be first in line in Tokyo on July 8, emerged with his white iPhone, he was chased by a pack of about 30 journalists. He gave up trying to outrun them after four blocks.
"I'm extremely happy,'' the breathless Sano, who turned 25 today, said.
Tickets for the 1,000 iPhones Softbank allocated to Yodobashi Camera, a store in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district were all taken within two minutes, said Manabu Nishimura, the shop's deputy manager.
The business-friendly features may help Jobs win more corporate customers from U.S. market leader Research In Motion, bringing him closer to his goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year.
"Apple will be one that does well since they are making it out to be so much more than a phone -- other players seem to be playing catch-up,'' said Romeo Dator, portfolio manager at the All American Equity Fund at U.S. Global Investors Inc. in San Antonio.
"They will be a winner in the move toward smart phones.'' His firm manages $5.5 billion, including Apple shares.
The iPhone 3G's debut came at one minute past midnight in Auckland, New Zealand.
"I'm going to go home, put this on charge, play around with it and have a nice long sleep,'' 22 year-old student Jonny Gladwell told Television New Zealand after becoming the first person in the world to buy the handset from an authorized retailer. He queued for 55 hours, he said.
"We needed to have quite a few security guards there because of the crowds and the media attention on Jonny,'' said Alison Sykora, a spokeswoman for Vodafone New Zealand Ltd.
In Hong Kong, Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. organized an Internet raffle to select 500 people to collect iPhones on the first day of sales.
The draw attracted "thousands'' of applications, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lui said. Another 1,000 handsets were reserved for "friends'' of the company, he said, without elaborating.
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