The thinnest, lightest and fastest smartphone goes on sale as Apple fanatics wait in long queues around the world
Apple’s iPhone 5 hit stores in a festive global rollout yesterday, with long queues of devotees undeterred by a lukewarm welcome from experts and complaints about the smartphone’s new mapping system.
The lines of eager fans outside stores looked set to make the latest generation iPhone another commercial smash for the trend-setting US company, with Apple saying it had received more than two million orders online.
Australians were the first to get their hands on the device.
In Sydney, faithful fans filmed the experience on their iPhones and iPads as staff inside clapped and cheered when the doors opened at 8am (10pm Thursday).
But the event was also hijacked by companies looking for free publicity, with the first in the queue wearing promotional T-shirts and caps or carrying advertising materials.
“Seven of us are here from our company, since midday on Tuesday,” said Todd Foot, 24, who was first in the line and works for an organisation that reviews mobile phones.
“We’ve actually had telephone hook-ups with the first in the lines in New York and London. It’s been a bit crazy.”
Compared to the iPhone 4S, Apple’s new smartphone boasts a bigger display, stronger battery and faster connection to the latest 4G networks.
It is lighter and slimmer, and contains tweaks designed to improve the user’s experience.
But many analysts say Apple has fallen short as other companies such as Samsung improve rival offerings powered by Google’s Android operating system.
“Unless Apple ups its device innovation game, we may be seeing Apple’s iOS empire approaching its zenith,” Tony Costa of Forrester Research said.
However, enthusiasm among early-bird shoppers was undimmed as iPhone 5 sales began too in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The phone went on sale later in the day in France, Germany, Britain, the United States and Canada.
Ryoho Yamashita, a 23-year-old student, had queued since midnight at a Softbank store in Tokyo and said there had been a celebratory atmosphere among those waiting.
“It’s like a festival that I enjoy every year,” he said, holding his new purchase as he praised the smartphone’s light weight and faster connection.
In Hong Kong, grey marketeers pounced on anyone who emerged from the city’s official Apple store, offering a premium for their phone in the hope of reselling it for even more, given shortages in the retail market.
“I paid about HK$8,000 (€790) for the iPhone just now. We’ll sell it for around HK$9,000 (€800 to HK$10,000 (€990),” said Suen, a reseller who refused to give his full name.
The normal retail price starts at HK$5,588 (€554) in the Apple store.
In Singapore, staff at an Apple reseller were turning people away, having run out of phones within hours of opening.
In Tokyo, engineer Masaru Mitsuya, 30, shrugged off some shortcomings with the new iPhone’s built-in iOS 6 operating system that have attracted heavy criticism online.
“On the whole the new product is better,” he said. “But I know the mapping function is not great. A station suddenly appears in the sea or Korean characters appear.
“But I’ll survive by downloading Google-made software.”
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said it was considering adding the new iPhone to a patent infringement case as part of a long-running global legal battle between the rival smartphone giants.
Samsung officials said the company would look into amending its side of an ongoing patent lawsuit in a US court to include the latest Apple gadget.
“Our company considers adding Apple’s iPhone 5 to the (patent infringement) case... but we cannot say when,” a Samsung spokesman said.
“Our decision will be made after our company has analysed the iPhone 5 to see what aspects of its device constitute patent infringement.”
Apple was also facing growing criticism from users around the world after it ditched a maps application made by its rival Google in favour of a native app that is reportedly riddled with errors.
A day after the new iOS 6 system was released, users from countries including the United States, Britain, China, France and Japan protested that the new maps misplace some landmarks and leave others off altogether. (AFP)
Key dates in Apple History
1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak unveil the first Apple computer in Palo Alto, California. It consists of little more than a circuit board and costs just under $700.
1977: The Apple II with a one-megahertz processor becomes the first mass-produced computer and an instant hit.
1980: Apple becomes a publicly traded company.
1983: Lisa, the first personal computer featuring a mouse for navigating and desktop icons and folders, is introduced. Its failure is blamed on a daunting price of nearly $10,000.
1984: The Macintosh personal computer makes its debut. It is affordable and features innovations such as a disk drive and built-in monitor, along with a mouse.
1997: Jobs returns as head of Apple, more than a decade after being stripped of control in an internal power struggle. Arch-rival Microsoft invests $150 million in the company.
1998: Jobs revamps Apple’s product line, churning out colourful $1,300 iMac PCs with monitors and drives in the same casing.
1999: The iBook, marketed as a mobile iMac, is introduced.
2001: Apple launches the iPod pocket digital music player for $399 and opens its first retail store in Palo Alto.
2003: Apple opens online music store iTunes.
2007: Apple kicks off the era of the touchscreen smartphone with the new iPhone.
2010: Apple unveils the iPad tablet computer, a huge hit after it goes on sale in April. Apple passes Microsoft in May as the largest US technology company in terms of market value.
2011:
August 24: Jobs announces his resignation as CEO for health reasons and is replaced by chief operating officer Tim Cook, but stays on as Apple board chairman.
October 4: Apple unveils the iPhone 4s, which includes a built-in “personal assistant” but fails to dazzle investors as it is not the next-generation iPhone 5 smartphone many had hoped for.
October 5: Apple announces the death of Jobs at the age of 56.
2012:
September 12: Apple introduces its new iPhone 5, a lighter, thinner and more powerful version of its mobile device.
September 21: The iPhone 5 is released around the world. Apple says that it received more than two million orders for the phone in the 24 hours after it began pre-sales online on September 14.