RPS Determines Coveted Spot in Line for the First iPhone in Japan

IPhone Fans in Tokyo Queue to Buy Handset 3 Days Before Sale

By Pavel Alpeyev

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Hiroyuki Sano is so keen to own Apple Inc.'s new iPhone he started queuing outside Softbank Corp.'s main store in Tokyo three days early. He's not alone.

About a dozen likeminded fans turned up around the same time yesterday, according to Sano, a 24-year old computer science student. He won the right to be the first person in Japan to buy the handset on July 11 after beating them in a game of rock- paper-scissors, he said.

``I've been looking forward to this since the first iPhone came out in the U.S.'' in June 2007, Sano said in an interview today. He traveled 350 kilometers from Nagoya, in central Japan, to queue for the handset. ``The first thing I'll do is try the GPS function and Google Maps.''

About 20 people equipped with folding chairs and snacks were lined up in front of Softbank's Omotesando store in downtown Tokyo, as of noon today.

Softbank, Japan's third-largest mobile-phone carrier, will sell the iPhone 3G in the country from 7 a.m. on July 11 for as low as 23,040 yen ($215). Apple will introduce the handset, which works on faster third-generation wireless networks, in 22 countries on that date.

The touch-screen device combines an e-mail-equipped handset with the iPod media player and allows users to download new software from Apple and third parties. Unlike most phones in Japan, the iPhone 3G lacks a removable battery and cannot receive digital television broadcasts or act as an electronic wallet.

``The handset's biggest strength is in its software, so people who only look at hardware and functions are missing the point,'' said Ryo Shimizu, explaining professional interest prompted him to get in line yesterday with three employees.

Shimizu, 31, is president of Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc., which develops software for mobile phones.

Still Undecided

While more than half of Japanese are interested in the iPhone 3G, only 6.7 percent plan to buy it right away and 36 percent are undecided, according to a survey conducted between June 24 and June 27 by Tokyo-based research firm Enterbrain Inc. Of the 1,200 people who responded, 32 percent said they have no interest in the device, the report said.

Apple, whose first iPhone model sold more than 6 million units, aims to sell 10 million of the new handsets worldwide this year. Deutsche Bank AG and Nikko Citigroup Ltd. forecast Softbank will sell about 1 million of them in the first year.

``The iPhone will set a new standard for the mobile-phone industry, the way `Star Wars' did for special effects in movies,'' said Shimizu. ``It's more than a phone: It's a paradigm shift.''

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