New Zealand Kicks off iPhone 3G Launch

The iPhone 3G is out.

Well, not here in the States, obviously. As this story hits the Web, we've got 25 hours, give or take, before the latest iPhone goes on sale just a few blocks away from Macworld's San Francisco headquarters.

But on the other side of the International Date Line, it's 12:01 a.m. Friday in New Zealand. And that means, those lucky Kiwis are the first to get their hands on the iPhone 3G. As our own Dan Moren reported this week, Vodafone was slated to launch the device from three retail outlets in Auckland City, Wellington, and Christchurch. Other Vodafone outlets in New Zealand will follow suit nine hours or so from now.

And two hours hence--that's 10 a.m. Eastern/7 a.m. Pacific--the iPhone 3G goes on sale in Australia. (Get the details from our colleagues at Australian Macworld.) That continent has already weighed on the latest iPhone--Australian Macworld was kind enough to let us reprint their iPhone 3G review.

So the countdown begins for us here in the U.S.--t-minus 22 hours for you east coasters. Hope you've figured out a way to pass the hours between now and then.