Apple May Sell 1 Million IPhones as New Version Attracts Crowds

Apple Inc. will probably sell a record 1 million iPhones today when the new version debuts and people such as John Whalen line up outside stores to be the first to buy it.

“It’s like the olden days of waiting in line for tickets to a rock concert,” said Whalen, 50, publisher of Cider Mill Press in Kennebunkport, Maine. “There isn’t anything I wait in line for other than the technology releases from Apple.”

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs added video calling, multitasking and a high-definition video camera to the iPhone 4 and made it faster and thinner. The device will be available first in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan. Apple may top 2 million iPhone sales by the end of the fiscal quarter on June 26, with half of that coming today, predicted Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.

In Japan, where the new model first went on sale, about 320 lined up outside the Tokyo flagship store of wireless carrier Softbank Corp., the iPhone’s exclusive provider in the country. That compared with 350 people who queued to be first to get its predecessor and 1,500 fans of the 3G version in 2008, according to Softbank spokesman Katsumasa Tochihara.

“Queuing is half the fun, it feels like you are part of something special,” said 28 year-old Manabu Ishiyama, who works in retail in Tokyo, and was second in line after arriving at 8 p.m. on June 21. “The screen is incredible and it has a front- facing camera, I can’t wait to try it out with Skype.”

Paris, London

In Paris, Kurt Huysmans was among more than 200 people outside Apple’s flagship store in the Louvre museum complex. The 30-year-old technical engineer from Antwerp had driven more than 300 kilometers (188 miles) to Paris with three friends “because it’s always fun to be first,” he said. “We knew it was a big line but why not? It’s my first iPhone. I think I’ll use the video calling a lot, and use it to take notes at work.”

France Telecom SA, the second-biggest iPhone operator after AT&T Corp., opened its Orange store on Paris’s Champs Elysees at midnight to accommodate eager shoppers.

In London, Emily Rogerson Reah, a 25-year-old law student who already has an iPhone 3G, queued outside a Carphone Warehouse store for the new device.

“I’m a bit of an Apple geek and there’s just something about the iPhone,” she said. “It’s so user friendly.”

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