Planet CNET: Ringing in the iPhone 3G Video

Planet CNET: Ringing in the iPhone 3G Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:07

>> Hey there, I'm Kara Tsuboi reporting from CNET headquarters in San Francisco. And welcome to the Planet CNET's iPhone 3G edition. Our CNET editors around the globe have collected video chronically in the fan fair and the disappointments surrounding Apple's July 11th release of the second generation phone. Let's start things off chronologically with Ella Morton in Australia. Not only is the 3G the first iPhone ever for the Aussies and Kiwis, but they were the first in the world to have the chance to buy the gadget. ^M00:00:35 [ Music ] ^M00:00:48

>> I'm from the United States, believe it or not. I flew over from California about 24 hours ago, came over here and got in line because New Zealand is gonna get the 3G iPhone about 24 hours sooner than the people in the United States.

>> I just came out with the idea to see if I could become the first person in the world to get the iPhone and then so as to survive on the streets for 3 days and 2 nights, and I came here at about 2:30 or around 3 o'clock and I'll stay at 5'o clock on Tuesday. ^M00:01:15 [ Music ] ^M00:01:30

>> With the iPhone available on 3 carriers, each phone company hosted an early morning event at a flagship store.

>> And I hear that there was little bonus to being first in line.

>> Yes, an unexpected bonus of--I must add, the Telstra has given me the phone.

>> To the surprise of many, the Apple Store in Sydney is selling the iPhone on all 3 carriers, Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone. You can sign up to a contract right here, activate your phone and away you go. [ Music ]

>> Hmm, spend thousands of dollars for a flight from California to New Zealand just to be the first in line. Not sure how that risk or word scenarios works out in your mind, but hey for a true fanboy, I suppose no distance is too far to travel. Revolving further west, Kaori Omoto brings us this look from Japan. [ Music ]

>> Apple's iPhone made its Japan debut on Friday morning. Take a look of these video events from the main shops in Tokyo. This video was shooted 3 days prior to the launch, but there were already several people waiting in line at Softbank Omotesando Store in downtown Tokyo. [Noise] And at 5 o'clock in the morning of the day of launch, more than 1,000 people were standing in line. [Foreign language] The iPhone 3G was officially released at noon, but at this Softbank's flagship store, they became available at 7 o'clock in the morning. Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of Softbank appeared at the Omotesando Store and held a ceremony. He also appeared in front of the store with the first buyer. [Foreign language] At noon, iPhone 3G was released at other stores including electronic stores like Akiba Yodobashi in this video. Akiba Yodobashi held a count down ceremony here, and again, Son attended the event. [Background noise] Another count down ceremony at Big Camera in Yurakucho, Tokyo. The lady here is Aya Ueto, a popular actress in Japan.

>> Not all the people in line were able to buy iPhones, but some employees here at CNET Network Japan were able to buy this iPhone. Well, unfortunately, not me. I was working at the office. Reporting from Japan, I'm Kaori Omoto. [ Music ]

>> Wow! A national celebrity lending her fame for the release, well let's hope she got a free phone out of the deal. Spinning off to Europe, we visit the UK where we first catch word that all is not okay in Apple land.

>> Hi guys, Nate Lanxon here at the Apple Store in London for Planet CNET. The Kiwis are pretty big. They're not as big as last year, so let's go and take a look. ^M00:04:05 [ Countdown and Cheering ] ^M00:04:13

>> Well, we've been waiting about 15 minutes now for the first iPhone owner or iPhoner, if you like, to come out. Right, we were now at 25 minutes, still no sign of the first iPhone buyer. My level of boredom has now gone to 11. Hey, will you buy an iPhone?

>> Yeah, I'm not gonna wait for hours to get phones.

>> Really, just tick away and--

>> Yeah, [unintelligible].

>> Okay. So it's been over an hour now, still no iPhone owner. Ahmm--what can you do? Ain't no buying an iPhone today?

>> Oh, it's just the other 2 systems completely crashed. Just call and register your phone.

>> Well, after full 2 hours of waiting here at the Apple Store in London, we still have no 3G iPhone customers. We've had talked about the system not working and there being problems with activation. We're not waiting any longer, so we'll see you later. [ Music ]

>> That was a very frustrated Nate Lanxon from CNET's London office, and it sure doesn't look like he's an iPhoner after his exasperating time in line. And finally, those of us on the west coast of the United States were the last ones to buy our iPhones in the July 11th release. But like London, it was not smooth sailing. [ Music ]

>> The promise of the second generation iPhone's faster 3G network and 3rd party applications were the primary lures for the fanboys to camp overnight at this Apple Store in Silicon Valley.

>> I use the internet a lot and then I use the [unintelligible] a lot, so the 3G will definitely help out with speeding things up and making things just a lot nicer and a lot smoother.

>> Another part of the appeal is no doubt the price. It's 199 dollars for the base model, 100 bucks cheaper than last year's version. But that's only for new AT&T customers and preexisting AT&T customers eligible for an upgrade. For everyone else, it's an extra 200 dollars for the phone itself. Then, add service plans from 69.99 a month to 129 a month. That includes unlimited access to the internet. If you want text messaging, you'll have to pony up another 20 bucks a month for unlimited texting.

>> It does push a smart phone technology forward, mostly because of the App Store, and again because of the enterprise support. But it's, you know, important for Apple because I think it's gonna be very market expanding. Mostly because of that push into the enterprise that they weren't able to do with the first generation phone.

>> While Apple does expect to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, some critics say that 3G version is still missing key components.

>> It still lacks multimedia messaging which is picture messaging to another phone. It still lacks video recording. It still lacks a landscape keyboard and voice dialing and quite a few things. [ Music ]

>> On top of those technical glitches, some AT&T stores here in the States reportedly sold out of the phone. So, despite the worldwide anticipation, the actuality of the release seems to be a global let down. Let's hope the next release for the rest of the world can go a bit smoother. Thanks for watching Planet CNET. We'll see you next week. I'm Kara Tsuboi reporting from CNET San Francisco. ^M00:07:09 [ Music ]