The first iPhone that will be sold to public should happen at 3pm Thursday, Pacific Time. This will be in Japan which is actually 7am Friday, Tokyo local time.
Reports state that by early afternoon here in California, there were more than 50 people in line at the SoftBank Omotesando store, the only location starting iPhone sales at 7am in Japan. Other stores are scheduled for noon on the same day.
Interestingly, the iPhone is expected to be available at virtually all stores that sell cell phones, according to SoftBank's announcement. In Japan, cell phones are usually sold through "channel stores", most of them being an electric appliance store, which exists in every city throughout the country.
Here are some links to iPhone websites or sites that may potentially report the initial launch in Japan:
- Official SoftBank iPhone 3G website
- http://www.ustream.tv/channel/17495
Claims to be reporting live... - http://www.iphone13.com/
A blog about iPhone - GIGAZINE
Online IT magazine - TBS News
One of the major broadcast stations. Video rich compared to other broadcast stations in Japan. - NHK News
"Government property" national broadcast station. - Yahoo! News - iPhone
Yahoo! Japan's largest share holder is SoftBank; 40.16%. However, iPhone is treated no special on their site. Rather seems to be totally unrelated or ignored.
2 comments:
Reports say that there was a line of more than 1,500 people in front of the Omotesando store which was almost a mile long! Did they all get an iPhone? Reports do not say. Here is a link to some pictures showing the CEO of SoftBank at the launch event. http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/business/infotech/160265/slideshow/94786/
Yahoo! Japan created a website for the iPhone! http://applevibe.blogspot.com/2008/07/yahoo-japan-for-iphone.html
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