The global rollout of Apple Inc’s revamped iPhone began yesterday in Asia with countdown celebrations and quick sellouts as crowds of gadget fans streamed into stores after long waits.
The target of desire was Apple’s much-hyped 3G, or third-generation, wireless-connecting cellphone — an upgrade of the model that went on sale last year in the US and several other nations.
Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan were the Asia-Pacific locations getting the new phone, with festivities shifting to Europe as the global day and 22-nation launch progressed. In the US, phones were to be made available at 8am in each time zone.
“Just look at this obviously innovative design,” said Yuki Kurita, emerging from a Tokyo store with the brand new 3G iPhone he barely knew how to use.
The 23-year-old system engineer, among about 1,500 people who had camped out on the street by one downtown store, said he was too excited to feel tired and called his mother to boast about his new buy.
“I am so thrilled just thinking about how I get to touch this,” he said, carrying bags of clothing and a skateboard he had used as a chair during his wait.
Kurita acknowledged, though, that the iPhone would replace only one of his two phones. He and other Japanese buyers said they wanted to check out how services such as e-mail worked before they decide to forsake their old phones.
The iPhone’s capabilities are less revolutionary in Japan, where people have for years used tech-heavy phones from domestic makers such as Sharp Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co to exchange e-mail, search for restaurants, download video and play games.
But networks prevalent up to now offer only limited access to the Web, and the iPhone is designed to browse the Web in much the same way computers do. Its arrival marks a significant foreign entry in a market dominated by local brands.
The frenzy over the iPhone was visible elsewhere in Asia as well.
In Hong Kong, designer Ho Kak-yin, 31, wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jealous?” was the first in line in a queue of about 100 inside a Hong Kong shopping mall.
“I’m very excited. It’s very amazing,” Ho said, after lining up two hours ahead of the kickoff.
Hundreds lined up outside stores in New Zealand’s main cities got their iPhones earlier at midnight on Thursday.
“Steve Jobs knows what people want,” Web developer Lucinda McCullough told the Christchurch Press newspaper, referring to Apple’s head. “And I need a new phone.”
Exactly how many iPhones will be available has been uncertain, fueling the hype about the Apple gadget with a cool-factor reputation.
“This is the year that the cellphone becomes an Internet-connecting machine,” Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corp, the only carrier selling the iPhone in Japan, said at the countdown ceremony. “Today is that day that will make it real, and it’s a historic day.”
Softbank said it sold out of iPhones at three major Tokyo stores before they opened. It has refused to say how many iPhones are being sold and said it didn’t have a nationwide store tally.
Tomohiko Katsu, a 38-year-old Japanese 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 on Thursday afternoon.
“All the features come packed in a compact machine,” he said. “It’s really small for a mobile PC device.”
A report this week by Mizuho Securities Co said the iPhone had potential to change lifestyles and bring new business opportunities.
Japanese tend to spend an hour or more on daily train commutes, and the iPhone could get them surfing the Web more than reading or listening to music, it said.
The iPhone’s arrival could also change the relationship between manufacturers and carriers because of Apple’s clout. Up to now, carriers have had considerable leverage over manufacturers, the report said.
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