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By KELVIN CHAN | Associated Press
HONG KONG (AP) In a now familiar global ritual, Apple fans jammed shops from
Sydney to Tokyo to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone.
Eager buyers formed long lines Friday at Apple Inc. stores in Australia and
Japan to be the first to get their hands on the latest version of the
smartphone. In Hong Kong and Singapore, buyers had to sign up online for the
chance to pick up the device at a prearranged time. The first customers in Hong
Kong were greeted by staff cheering, clapping, chanting "iPhone 5! iPhone 5!"
and high-fiving them as they were escorted one-by-one through the front door.
The smartphone is also being launched in the U.S., Britain, Canada, France and
Germany. It will go on sale in 22 more countries a week later. The iPhone 5 is
thinner, lighter, has a taller screen, faster processor, updated software and
can work on faster "fourth generation" mobile networks.
The iPhone 5 has become a hot seller despite initial lukewarm reviews and new
map software that is glitch prone. Apple received 2 million orders in the first
24 hours of announcing its release date, more than twice the number for the
iPhone 4S in the same period when that phone launched a year ago.
In a sign of the intense demand, police in Osaka, Japan, were investigating the
theft of nearly 200 iPhones 5s, including 116 from one shop alone, Kyodo News
reported.
Analysts have estimated Apple will ship as many as 10 million of the new
iPhones by the end of September.
Some Australian fans went to extremes to be among the first by arriving at
Apple's flagship store in downtown Sydney on Tuesday three days ahead of the
release.
Todd Foot, 24, nabbed the coveted first spot and spent about 18 hours a day in
a folding chair and catching a few hours' sleep each night in a tent on the
sidewalk.
Foot's dedication was largely a marketing stunt, however. He writes product
reviews for a technology website that will give away the phone after Foot
reviews it.
"I just want to get the phone so I can feel it, compare it and put it on our
website," he said while slumped in his chair.
In Singapore, which doesn't have an Apple store, Liu Ting Ting waited 12 hours
to be the first of 10,000 people in the Southeast Asian city-state granted the
opportunity to buy one at a Singapore Telecommunications launch-day event.
"I have this I-need-to-be-first mentality because this is the first time I'm
buying an iPhone," said Liu, who is dumping her Blackberry because she believes
the iPhone 5's photo and video capabilities will help with her journalism
studies.
"If I wasn't the first, I would have gone home," she said.
Not everyone lining up outside Hong Kong's Apple store was an enthusiast.
University student Kevin Wong, waiting to buy a black 16 gigabyte model for
5,588 Hong Kong dollars ($720), said he was getting one "for the cash." He
planned to immediately resell it to one of the numerous grey market retailers
catering to mainland Chinese buyers. China is one of Apple's fastest growing
markets but a release date for the iPhone 5 there has not yet been set.
Wong was required to give his local identity card number when he signed up for
his iPhone on Apple's website. The requirement prevents purchases by tourists
including mainland Chinese, who have a reputation for scooping up high-end
goods on trips to Hong Kong because there's no sales tax and because of the
strength of China's currency. Even so, the mainlanders will probably buy it
from the resellers "at a higher price a way higher price," said Wong, who
hoped to make a profit of HK$1,000 ($129).
Tokyo's glitzy downtown Ginza district not only had a long line in front of the
Apple store, but another across the main intersection at Softbank, the first
carrier in Japan to offer iPhones.
Hidetoshi Nakamura, a 25-year-old auto engineer, said he's an Apple fan because
it's an innovator.
"I love Apple," he said, standing near the end of a two-block-long line,
reading a book and listening to music on his iPod.
"It's only the iPhone for me."
___
Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Faris Mokhtar in
Singapore contributed to this report.
Follow Kelvin Chan on at twitter.com/chanman