Emerging as the world’s very first wide-eyed consumer to purchase a new 3G model of the iconic Apple iPhone, 22-year-old Jonny Gladwell gleefully secured his second-generation touch-screen smartphone from a Vodafone store in New Zealand this morning at exactly one minute past midnight local time.
Hey, people, it\'s... just... a... phone... Image: b_d_solis/Flickr.
After patiently camping outside the Auckland store for some 55 hours through inclement winter weather, a clearly tired but momentarily energised Gladwell told Television New Zealand reporters that he was heading home for “a nice long sleep,” although not before putting his iPhone on charge and having a “play around with it” for a while.
With consumers in New Zealand, Australia and Japan amongst the first to get their clammy technophile hands on the iPhone 3G, Apple’s latest iteration of its diminutive smartphone is set to arrive today across around 22 markets, which is somewhat of a saturation departure when compared to the mere 6 that eventually received the original (EDGE network) model following the US launch in June of 2007.
Further to that, Cupertino-based Apple Inc. has said that it plans to steadily increase international iPhone 3G availability to cover a total of 70 different countries by the close of 2008.
Beyond the first-to-retail joy of young Jonny Gladwell, Tokyo experienced a sizeable rush of iPhone consumer interest via it’s the flagship Softbank Corp. store in Omotesando, where close to 1,500 expectant Apple fans had gathered ahead of the official Japanese launch. Today’s release marks the first time the iPhone has been made available in Japan.
Sporting various forms of functional camping equipment and a liberal supply of existing Apple computer technology to help pass the time as the hours ticked by to the iPhone’s official arrival, the queue of prospective buyers ran for almost half a kilometre from the doors of the Softbank store.
CNNMoney reports that the store’s entrance was crawling with reports, frantically chatting to those closest to attaining their Apple-branded dream phone, while helicopters circled noisily overhead and a grandiose LED clock ticked away the final few seconds before the doors were flung open and the consumer siege began.
In a move to further boost the appeal of its iPhone 3G, Apple yesterday drummed up more interest in its new online “App Store,” which will provide users with access to hundreds of third-party software applications that can be used on their handsets. Specifically, Apple has said that more than 125 of the initial 500 programs open for download via the App Store will be free to iPhone customers.
Beyond slight aesthetic tweaks applied Apple’s popular handset, the main points of attraction with the second-generation iPhone include high-speed data access thanks to the (long-awaited) arrival of 3G network connectivity, along with an onboard GPS system and support for Microsoft’s business-based Exchange e-mail communication feature.
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