New model iPhone goes on sale in Japan

The new iPhone model goes on sale today in Ireland, six months father the launch of the original version of the Apple handset.

It will be available to purchase at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse outlets.

The new model also went on sale in the Asia-Pacific region, making its debut in Japan amid swirling smoke after a 30-second countdown chanted by hundreds of people lined up, some for days, in a queue snaking around the block.

The celebration at Japanese carrier Softbank Corporation’s store in Tokyo, which included a digital clock display ticking away over the entrance, was part of a roll-out in 22 nations of Apple’s much-hyped 3G, or third-generation, wireless connecting mobile phone, an upgrade of the model that went on sale last year in the US and several other nations.

Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong were the other Asia-Pacific locations getting the new phone.