Apple and Softbank Mobile finally started the sales of the iPad in Japan on Friday. At Apple Store Ginza or one of Apple Japan’s two flagship stores in Tokyo, about 1,200 people were queuing for having the new device. The earliest bird who has been waiting at the store since Wednesday’s 4pm was 19-year-old part-timer Takechiyo Yamanaka[J] (@takechiyo_yam[J]), and he were broadcasting the moment that he gets the first device sold in the country on Ustream. He exchanged high-five with sales representatives celebrating his effort. Let’s have a look at the Ustream video below.
Meanwhile, at Softbank Mobile’s flagship store selling the iPad 3G model, about 250 people have been waiting for the sales start as of 8am on the day.
(Source: Ustream video streamcasted by Softbank Mobile’s sister company TV Bank)
Just in time for the day of the device’s sales start here, a number of the iPad related news were coming in to us as follows.
- EBPAJ (The E-Book Publishers Assc. of Japan) to release e-book reader app for the iPhone in June and the one for the iPad in fall.
- The Sankei Shimbun starts e-newspaper distribution for the iPad users for the monthly subscription cost of about USD17.
- Clothing mail-order retailer Senshukai and the iPhone/iPad app developer Yappa jointly release the catalog viewer app for the iPad.
- Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc. releases Zeptopad Planner Note for the iPad (a design and presentation tool).
- Nota starts testing the iPad using for book search at public libraries.
- Square Enix introduces photo album “Final Fantasy XIII Larger-than-Life Gallery” and party game “Chocobo Panic” for the iPad.
- Rakuten Books starts allowing the iPad users to read some selected pages of paper-printed magazines on the iPad in association with 18 magazine publishers.
- Radiko.jp introduces the iPad app which allows you to tune in simulcast radio services on the Internet.
- Yahoo Japan introduces a new map app for the iPad, which allows users to measure a distance between two selected locations on the map by scratching the iPad screen with the fingers.
- Yahoo Japan to introduce comic magazine service for the iPad soon.
Masaru IKEDA