AppleInsider Staff
Apple kicked off sales of the massively popular iPhone 5 handset in China and 31 other countries on Friday, fending off supply constraints as the company continues its fastest rollout ever.
As noted by The Next Web, the usual long lines seen at past Apple product launches in China were staunched, largely in thanks to the combination of a snow storm and the preorder system instituted by the country's two official partner carriers.
The Sanlitun Apple Store, the company's first retail outlet in China, saw workers milling about waiting to greet customers that never came. The lack of walk-in purchases is in stark contrast to reports of strong pre-sale number that had cellular carrier China Unicom sitting at over 300,000 preorders days before Friday's launch.
China is now Apple's second-largest market, and holds the world's biggest base of mobile subscribers. While the Cupertino, Calif., company has been able to broker deals with China Unicon and China Telecom, Apple has yet to tap into the vast pool of the world's largest carrier China Mobile. An arrangement has been rumored to be in the works for years and China Mobile's president recently acknowledged that the two companies are in talks, but chances are slim that a partnership will be reached in the near future.
Along with China, the iPhone 5 also launched in the following countries on Friday:
Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
The smartphone will debut in over 50 countries in December with the next wave of releases scheduled for a week from today.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
17 Comments
I am uncertain that Chine Mobile is such a big deal. Yes, they're the largest telco, but not so much when looking at the 3G piechart: [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/17810/width/500/height/1000[/IMG] I know it's from March, but still, it looks like Apple is in no rush to sign a deal as they are in talks for over two years now. -- Commendable milestone that they released the iPhone5 in 50 more countries, with good timing before the holiday season. Although not all of these 'iPhone5 countries' celebrate a Christmas holiday: [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/17812/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
I am uncertain that Chine Mobile is such a big deal. Yes, they're the largest telco, but not so much when looking at the 3G piechart:
I know it's from March, but still, it looks like Apple is in no rush to sign a deal as they are in talks for over two years now.
--
Commendable milestone that they released the iPhone5 in 50 more countries, with good timing before the holiday season. Although not all of these 'iPhone5 countries' celebrate a Christmas holiday:
that's a great breakdown, i'm sure the iphone will work on the 2g network like the iphone 1st gen - but maybe those without 3g aren't really a demographic to afford the phone being in the more rural areas. that's amazing how the non christmas celebrations lay across the centre of the planet, does this represent colonisation ?
Phil,
I tend to disagree, China mobile is a BIG deal, since Apple want to obtain as much subscriber coverage as possible within China. China mobile will be trying to increase the transfer of 2G subscribers to 3G and with large subscriber base their have, I would think Apple would want to be have a strategic deal to capture that market.
Apple will want to grow their subscriber base and you can see there is tremendous opportunity within China mobile.
China Mobile will probably hold out until they see how much business they are losing. Apple made AT&T a player in the US, and could do that for China Mobile's competition
It took Apple 4 iPhone generations for availability with Verizon, and just this year with T-Mobile, so it will come. China Mobile is a much bigger player and probably has some pretty strict terms that Apple probably doesn't want to budge on. It will happen...when is the big question.