Australia kicks off launch of Apple's iPhone 5
- 20 September, 2012 22:56
- Comments
The global launch of Apple's iPhone 5 began early Friday morning in Australia when stores in the country opened their doors at 8 a.m. The phone has attracted massive attention from consumers, and some analysts expect it to be Apple's biggest phone launch ever.
Hundreds were waiting in line outside Apple's flagship store in Sydney and at a store of Telstra across the street. A 10-second countdown -- something common at Apple Stores when major products go on sale -- signaled the global launch of the phone, which is the sixth in Apple's iPhone line.
(Follow the global iPhone 5 launch with our live blog.)
Announced only one week ago, the iPhone 5 attracted pre-orders of 2 million units within 24 hours, according to figures from Apple. The pace was double that seen for the iPhone 4S, the previous handset.
With the launch in Australia now done, the spotlight moves to Japan. A queue of several hundred people are already waiting for the 8 a.m. start of sales there. The biggest launch event in Japan is expected to take place outside the flagship store of carrier Softbank Mobile in Tokyo's Ginza district. There, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is expected to attend and hand an iPhone 5 to his first Japanese customer.
The phone will also go on sale in Hong Kong and Singapore before the launch shifts to Europe. The U.K., France and Germany will see the iPhone 5 go on sale today with launches in the U.S. and Canada rounding off the first day of sales.
Next week the phone will go on sale in an additional 22 countries.
(Jeremy Kirk reported from Sydney.)
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
- The Power of Cloud
- How Web Security Improves Productivity and Compliance
- Virtualisation and Cloud Computing: Optimised Power, Cooling and Management Maximises Benefits
- BYOD and Beyond - Implementing a Unified Access Solution
- Top Five Reasons Why Customers Deploy a Flash 1st Strategy on EMC VNX Storage
-
Solving the skills conundrum – part 1
-
Australia suspected to have PRISM data: Ludlam
-
Australia Post’s mail business to lose $200 million this year
-
Australia Post’s mail business to lose $200 million this year
-
Microsoft's ambivalence about Office on the Web gives Apple shot with iWork on iCloud
-
IDC Insight: Saving Time and Money with Savvy Use of Flash in Automated Storage Tiering
Storage optimisation and Flash technologies are here to stay. There is also no doubt that unprecedented data growth will continue to strain organisations everywhere. Download this IDC whitepaper to learn more about the cost-effective solution that has helped many organisations increase the productivity of their storage resources. -
Securing the Promise of Virtualisation
For today’s enterprise, this whitepaper identifies three general areas of risk associated with risk; those that are traditionally areas of risk, the hazards that are exclusive to virtualisation and the more recent set of risks that are associated with newly formed hybrid environments. Read more to find out how to keep pace with evolving threats, quicker provisioning and dynamically mobile workloads. -
HP Helps NEC Reduce Network Management Costs and Gain Efficiencies
NEC wanted to reduce network management costs, while increasing network visibility, decreasing mean-time-to-repair, improving stability and mitigating the risk of downtime. Download today to hear from Cameron Craig, Senior department manager of NEC on what approach they took and why.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
