iPhone 5 To Arrive In China In Early December

According to The Wall Street Journal, China Telecom will begin offering the new Apple’s iPhone late this month or early December, thus increasing the potential for a blockbuster fourth quarter for Apple. WSJ said:

“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”.

Also Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom Chairman, said that they hope to offer iPhone 5 this year and they wait for the government to issue the remaining licenses for the device to be launched in China.

According to the report, Apple earned $5.7 billion in China last quarter (16% of its total revenue).

Apple plans to launch the new iPhone in at least 100 countries this year, despite ongoing production issues resulted in shortages in stores where the phone has already launched.

When it comes to launches of new Apple products, China is usually well behind the lead group of countries, but the tight launch schedule for the new iPhone means that the gap between the first round of launches and launch in China may only be around two months.

The release of the iPhone 5 in China is likely to decrease the number of devices being siphoned off from Hong Kong and other countries by scalpers buying as many iPhones as possible for resale in China.