iPhone 5 Coming to China in Late November or Early December

iphone 5 chinaThe Wall Street Journal reports that China Telecom is preparing to begin offering the iPhone 5 in late November or early December, adding to the potential for a blockbuster holiday quarter for Apple.

Government officials haven't offered guidance on when the iPhone 5 might win final approval. But China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu said Friday in a brief interview on the sidelines of the Communist Party's 18th Party Congress in Beijing that the phone should be by early December if not sooner.

China Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing was less certain. "We hope to offer it this year, but what I say doesn't matter," he said on the sidelines of the congress, adding that his company was waiting for the government to grant the remaining licenses for the phone to be released in China.

The report notes that China was responsible for $5.7 billion in revenue for Apple last quarter, 16% of the company's total.

Apple has committed to a rapid rollout of the iPhone 5 to at least 100 countries by the end of the year, despite continuing production issues that have resulted in shortages where the device has already launched. China is typically well behind the lead pack of countries when it comes to new Apple product launches, but the compressed launch schedule for the iPhone 5 means that this gap may only be roughly two months from the first round of launches in the U.S. and other countries.

The introduction of the iPhone 5 in China is also likely to reduce the number of units being siphoned off from other countries by gray market dealers purchasing the devices elsewhere for resale in China. Despite Apple's efforts to limit their ability to soak up supplies, scalpers are still working to secure as many iPhones as possible from retail stores in Hong Kong, the U.S., and other countries to send back to China.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...

Top Rated Comments

ALCRON Avatar
162 months ago
The iPhone is already in China lol... :p
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Old Muley Avatar
162 months ago
Pardon my ingorance, but...

How much does the average Chinese worker/citizen make? Are the phones being sold in China subsidized somehow? I mean, here in the US, I am of middle income and so far my family has been unable to purchase iPhones mainly because of the annual costs associated with the cellular plans. If it is somewhat out of reach for me, how can a Chinese citizen afford it? (Of course I wonder the same thing about all the unemployed 20-somethings I encounter on a daily basis...)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nungster Avatar
162 months ago
how about just produce enough in the USA first before releasing to more countries.

enough "FOR" the USA. They are made in China already.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scott6666 Avatar
162 months ago
Time to buy apple stock? Mini-screen-gate will pale in comparison to this.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacManTexas56 Avatar
162 months ago
how about just produce enough in the USA first before releasing to more countries.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macs4nw Avatar
162 months ago
How much does the average Chinese worker/citizen make? Are the phones being sold in China subsidized somehow? I mean, here in the US, I am of middle income and so far my family has been unable to purchase iPhones mainly because of the annual costs associated with the cellular plans. If it is somewhat out of reach for me, how can a Chinese citizen afford it? (Of course I wonder the same thing about all the unemployed 20-somethings I encounter on a daily basis...)

Something I also often wonder about, but keep in mind that people all over the world, not just in China, will sacrifice in other areas, to purchase products that appeal to them or give them instant status, and APPLE products are no exception to that rule.

Just for the record, I can think of exactly one successful consumer product of any sort ever created in a communist country - the game Tetris. Apart from that, what has a communist country ever made that anyone in the west actually wanted to buy? Remember the Yugo? There are, what, a billion and a half Chinese citizens - they outnumber us 6 to 1. Shouldn't there have been 6 Chinese equivalents to Steve Jobs by now? Or is there something inherent about socialism that quashes innovation by denying innovators the fruits of their labor? I personally am not at all surprised either that the Chinese excel at turning their people into robots to build iPhones or that the Chinese have never made a product that people have truly wanted the same way the people of the world cannot wait for the next iOS device. Let me just reiterate - this is not a racist statement. All you need to do is compare the relative prosperity of Taiwan to the mainland - there's a clear difference.

But, they are catching up, make no mistake about that. With 1.37 Billion people, they have a huge talent pool, and even though they may have originally copied western tech, they are now beginning to develop their own technology, and innovation will no doubt be next. If you have any doubts about that, just look at companies like HUAWEI, currently the world's largest provider of telecommunications equipment, dwarfing the likes of ERICSSON and CISCO. Their worlwide 2011 investment in R&D was US$3.74 Billion.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)