The Wall Street Journal is reporting that China Telecom is preparing to offer the iPhone 5 in the late November – early December time frame. This move will add to a potentially 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 wasn’t quite as certain. “We hope to offer it this year, but what I say doesn’t matter,” he said, adding that his company was waiting for the government to grant the remaining licenses for the phone to be released in China.
China was responsible for $5.7 billion in revenue for Apple last quarter, making up 16% of the company’s total revenue.
Despite continuing production issues, Apple is committed to rolling out the iPhone 5 to at least 100 countries by the end of the year. China typically lags well behind other countries for new Apple product launches, but the ambitious launch schedule for the iPhone 5 means the gap has shrunk considerably.
