July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.'s new iPhone went on sale today, with crowds lining up outside stores in Tokyo and Auckland, as Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs takes aim at Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry.

Minoru Hagiyama arrived at Softbank Corp.'s store on Omotesando, Tokyo, at 6:30 a.m. local time to find about 1,300 customers already in front of him. The first started camping out three days ago to buy the iPhone 3G, an update of Apple's handset that works on speedier third-generation wireless networks.

``I haven't owned a mobile phone in about five years, I just didn't feel the need, but this is different,'' said Hagiyama, 50, from Tokyo. ``I don't think of it as a mobile phone, more like a portable PC.''

The line-up of customers, mostly male, equipped with folding chairs, tarpaulins, packs of food and Apple laptop computers, stretched as much as 800 meters from the flagship store of Softbank, Japan's third-largest mobile-phone carrier, which won the right to introduce the iPhone 3G in the nation.

The entrance to the store was besieged by reporters and camera crews, while helicopters circled overhead as an LED display above the door counted the minutes and seconds down to 7 a.m. when the handset went on sale.

Apple will start selling the new iPhone in 22 markets today, almost quadrupling the markets for the handset, which has better audio quality, lets users run software from outside developers and adds support for corporate e-mail systems. The handset has already seized second place behind the Blackberry in the market for Web-surfing handsets known as smart phones in the U.S.

Smart-Phone Winner

When Hiroyuki Sano, who traveled 350 kilometers (220 miles) to be first in line in Tokyo on July 8, emerged with his white iPhone, he was chased by a pack of about 30 journalists. He gave up trying to outrun them after four blocks.

``I'm extremely happy,'' the breathless Sano, who turned 25 today, said.

The business-friendly features may help Jobs win more corporate customers from U.S. market leader Research In Motion, bringing him closer to his goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year.

``Apple will be one that does well since they are making it out to be so much more than a phone -- other players seem to be playing catch-up,'' said Romeo Dator, portfolio manager at the All American Equity Fund at U.S. Global Investors Inc. in San Antonio. ``They will be a winner in the move toward smart phones.'' His firm manages $5.5 billion, including Apple shares.

New Zealand First

The iPhone 3G's debut came at one minute past midnight in New Zealand. In Auckland, 22 year-old student Jonny Gladwell queued for 55 hours to be the first person in the world to buy the handset from an authorized retailer.

``I'm going to go home, put this on charge, play around with it and have a nice long sleep,'' Gladwell told Television New Zealand.

In Hong Kong, Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. organized an Internet raffle to select 500 people to collect iPhones on the first day of sales. The draw attracted ``thousands'' of applications, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lui said. Another 1,000 handsets were reserved for ``friends'' of the company, he said, without elaborating.

Jobs plans to offer the device in 70 countries later this year, compared with about 135 nations for Research In Motion's BlackBerry. Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster predicts Apple may sell 4.08 million iPhone 3Gs this quarter.

Apple Stock Boosted

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose 1.4 percent to $176.63 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 11 percent this year before today.

Phone makers have returned fire with less costly competitors. Sprint Nextel Corp. dubbed Samsung Electronics Co.'s Instinct handset an ``iPhone killer'' when it began selling the device last month for $130 with a contract. Palm Inc. sells the Centro smart phone for $99 with a carrier agreement.

Jobs plans to turn the iPhone into Apple's third major business alongside the Macintosh computer and iPod media player. Those businesses accounted for 78 percent of Apple's $24 billion in sales in its latest fiscal year.

Apple is no longer tying distribution deals with wireless carriers to a cut of the monthly fees they collect. Instead, analysts expect its partners to buy phones from Apple for anywhere from $350 to $700 apiece. The carriers can then sell the 3G phone at any price, with a goal of recouping the handset's cost by requiring that customers sign service contracts.

Apple will sell its largest model, with 16 gigabytes of storage, for $299 with a two-year service contract in the U.S., compared with $499 for the older version. AT&T Inc., the biggest U.S. phone company, provides iPhone service exclusively there.

Customers will be able to download Internet content at least twice as fast as the older models using the 3G networks. The new iPhone also has a global positioning system and support for Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange corporate e-mail system.

``I truly believe this phone is best in class,'' said Jeffrey Ng, president of New York-based Eastmedia Group Inc., who waited in line last year at Apple's Fifth Avenue store to buy his iPhone. He's planning on trading up to the new model. ``The GPS and 3G speed I think is well worth it.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net; Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 11, 2008 00:20 EDT