Latest iPhone hits Tokyo streets

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

Japanese carrier Softbank Corp.'s downtown store started selling the 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."

The line that had been growing for days at the downtown store had reached about 1,000 people, although signs went up earlier that the store had stopped accepting applications.

Exactly how many iPhones will be available is uncertain, fueling the hype about the Apple Inc. machine that boasts a cool-factor reputation.

The iPhone's capabilities are less revolutionary here, where people have for years used the tech-heavy local phones for restaurant searches, e-mail, music downloads, reading digital novels and electronic shopping. They tend to shrug off foreign models, such as those of Nokia Corp.

Some people buying the iPhone said they planned to use it as their second cell phone and may compare carrier services first before choosing to go with just the iPhone.

The latest Japanese cell phones have two key features absent from the iPhone — digital TV broadcast reception and the "electronic wallet" for making payments at stores and vending machines equipped with special electronic readers.

But they don't have the iPhone's nifty touch screen or glamour image.

Another key difference is that the iPhone is designed to browse the Web in much the same way computers do. The networks promoted by Japanese carriers, such as "i-mode" from NTT DoCoMo, are more closed than the Web. Such systems have allowed carriers to control services and charge fees.

Japan is home to powerful electronics brands such as Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s Panasonic, but its consumers are trend-chasers and have long adored Apple products such as the iPod.