The release of Apple Inc.’s new 3G iPhone on Friday drew the expected long lines around the world in the 22 countries where the device went on sale as computer-industry analysts anticipated weekend sales to surpass those of the initial iPhone rollout a year ago.
Vodafone Group store in Auckland, New Zealand sold the first 3G iPhone reportedly , after the combination mobile phone, iPod and Wi-Fi device went on sale shortly after midnight there.
At one of Apple’s flagship stores in San Francisco, approximately 500 people were in a line that stretched for nearly two city blocks, as store security officials allowed groups of about 20 people at time inside to purchase the iPhone. Lines were expected to be long as Apple isn’t selling the iPhone through its online store.
Apple sees the 3G iPhone in an effort to establish the mobile phone internationally and secure a position among the leading makers of smart phones worldwide. The company also cut the prices of the device to $199 and $299, and has added support for more services meant to appeal to enterprise customers and take on Research In Motion Ltd.’s popular BlackBerry.
When Chief Executive Steve Jobs showed off the 3G iPhone at Apple’s developer conference in June, he said that Apple had sold more than 6 million iPhones since it first rolled it out in late June 2007. The company has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year.
Apple sold 270,000 iPhones during that first weekend when the iPhone was only on sale in the United States. Based on pent-up demand, expanded distribution and lower prices for the new iPhone, Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets estimates that more than 1 million iPhones will be sold worldwide during the initial weekend of sales. He also pegged Apple’s total iPhone sales for its current, fiscal fourth quarter at 5.1 million units.