AppleInsider StaffThe iPhone 5 went on sale in 22 more countries on Friday, making it now available in a total of 31 nations around the world, in Apple's most aggressive launch schedule ever.
The list of countries where the iPhone 5 launched on Friday is: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
They join the 9 countries where the iPhone 5 debuted a week ago: the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
As can be seen in the included videos, customers queued up around the world to be among the first to get their hands on the iPhone 5. The handset features a taller 4-inch display, Apple's improved A6 processor, and the new, smaller Lightning connector port.
By December, the iPhone 5 will be available in a total of 100 countries with 240 carriers. The device is expected to become Apple's best selling product ever, and it already sold a record breaking 5 million units in its launch weekend alone.
In addition to 22 new countries, the iPhone 5 also launched Friday on a number of regional carriers in the U.S. They include Cellcom, nTelos, Appalachian Wireless, C Spire, GCI, and Cricket Communications.
A number of these carriers — Cellcom, nTelos and Appalachian — have cut $50 off the normal retail price, allowing on-contract buyers to obtain an iPhone 5 for $149 for the 16-gigabyte model, $249 for 32 gigabytes, and $349 for 64 gigabytes.
The fact that the iPhone 5 is debuting in so many places on Friday is particularly noteworthy to investors in AAPL stock. The company's September quarter ends on Saturday, which means the aggressive launch schedule will help boost sales for the current quarter.
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12 Comments
Cue the jokes on how the apple faithful wont be able to find the stores next year to buy the phones due to Apple Maps
Before anyone over reacts to my joke I'm a big Apple fan and despite being scratchtastic I love the look & feel of the new iPhone. Wish I could justify the upgrade over my 4S
Before anyone over reacts to my joke I'm a big Apple fan and despite being scratchtastic I love the look & feel of the new iPhone. Wish I could justify the upgrade over my 4S
I think we realise that! Maps gives me three routes to my favourite non-Apple Mac store, each valid. I could do the journey in my sleep, so Maps would have no excuse for getting it wrong :)
I am hoping they only sold 5 millions last weekend because they were saving units for this launch. Apple need 10+ millions sales to save the current quarter.
Somewhat different and a bit weird launch from Apple.
When 4S was announced, one of the big IT houses had plenty of units since day one and was probably "carrier-grade" seller of the phone for the first months. They had pre-order open for the iPhone 5 as well but they haven't received a single phone yet and availability is still unknown.
The carriers are selling iPhone 5 only at the stores, the on-line services don't give any estimates when you might get your phone.
Apple Store has been showing 3-4 weeks delivery time since the very early hours of the day.
It's going to be really interesting to see the sales figures for the iPhone 5 during 4Q2012.