14 DAY TRIAL // Today at 7:00 AM, the new iPhone 3G made its debut in Japan. The lucky carrier to distribute and offer plans for Apple's iPhone is Softbank, situated at the heart of the Harajuku district. This morning, the company opened its doors to customers eager to get their hands on the new device.
More than 1,000 people queued up in front of the store for the chance to be among the first to own the iPhone 3G, according to Macworld. Which is, in itself, pretty understandable since the new handset has been highly anticipated in Japan. The first generation iPhone works on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile networks. This standard has never been used in Japan, therefore original iPhones don't work in this territory.
Speaking in front of the store just before the launch, Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank said: "This is the year that the cell phone becomes an Internet-connecting machine. Today is the day that will make it real, and I think it's a historic day."
The first customer to come out of the store holding his new iPhone in hand was actually the third in line. The respective individual was able to beat out the two people ahead of him simply because his activation process went as smoothly as possible. This confirms Apple and AT&T were pretty right about the short elapsed time for activating the new iPhone 3G within their stores (which includes the paying processes, carefully choosing a plan to go with it and ultimately activating the phone).
However, even with a smooth transaction and activation procedure, it still took the customer some 20 minutes to get out of the store with his new device, which indicates that some can be stuck for even more than half an hour, if everything doesn't go dandy.
"It's great isn't it," the customer said. "I've already used it to call my girlfriend."
According to the aforementioned source, Softbank will also begin sales at its other stores, as well as through electronics retailers starting at noon, today.