According to this morning’s Nikkei, customers are actually standing in line outside of Softbank’s Harajuku location in Tokyo. Of course, they’re waiting for the new iPhone 3G to go on sale, which it will at 7am Friday.

In what looks like a clever marketing/PR move, the Harajuku location will be putting the iPhone on sale five hours before any other in Japan. This, of course, seems to have generated the result that people will stand in line outside the Harajuku shop. The TV crews and reporters know exactly where to go.

Apparently, it’s not only happening in Tokyo. Fosfar.com has a pic of people lining up for a new iPhone in New York City. Information Week is reporting that people are paying each other to wait in line for a new iPhone throughout the US, often advertising on sites such as Craigslist.

In possibly related, though possibly unrelated news, a recent story in JapanInc concerning the long lines that (somehow) still form outside of Tokyo’s Krispy Kreme locations ¹ describes an interesting business model that may not be found outside of Japan:

Waiting lines have become a marketing tool. ‘Benriya’-service companies, which offer all kinds of unusual services, provide rentable ‘queuers’ who form or extend lines.

We don’t mean to imply that anyone is paying anyone to stand in line to get an iPhone in Harajuku. That would be cynical. But, Softbank has undoubtedly created the perfect conditions under which a line should form. Clearly, the JapanInc piece is very correct here: Crating a line is a very clear sign that there is demand for your product.

Now, how would that work for a website?

¹Seriously, they’re just donuts. Then again, I’ve never had one.