Thursday, July 10, 2008

Apple's iPhone goes on sale in Japan


TOKYO: The iPhone went on sale at a Tokyo store Friday, making its debut in Japan, amid swirling smoke after a 30-second countdown chanted by hundreds of people lined up, some for days, snaking around the block.

The store in downtown Tokyo of Japanese carrier Softbank Corp.'s store, started selling Apple Inc.'s much awaited cell phone five hours ahead of the other stores in the nationwide chain.

The 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, an upgrade of the model that went on sale last year in the U.S. and several other nations.


TOKYO: The iPhone went on sale at a Tokyo store Friday, making its debut in Japan, amid swirling smoke after a 30-second countdown chanted by hundreds of people lined up, some for days, snaking around the block.

The store in downtown Tokyo of Japanese carrier Softbank Corp.'s store, started selling Apple Inc.'s much awaited cell phone five hours ahead of the other stores in the nationwide chain.

The 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, 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 are the other Asia-Pacific countries getting the new phone.

"This is the year that the cell phone becomes an Internet-connecting machine," Softbank President Masayoshi Son told the crowd at the countdown ceremony. "Today is that day that will make it real, and it's a historic day."

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