Following its Chinese iPad and iPhone announcements last week, Apple has announced that it will launch the iPhone 5 in South Korea on Friday, December 7, releasing the smartphone in more than 50 additional countries across December.
Currently in 47 countries, the iPhone 5 will be launched in South Korea this Friday, and will then be followed a week later with the opening of sales in Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, 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.
On December 21, the smartphone will then reach the Caribbean and Africa, as the device goes on sale in Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam.
It’s also a very agressive strategy, with Apple getting the iPhone 5 to stores and operators in over 100 countries in less than three months (just as it said). It is certainly the fastest rollout of the iPhone to date, and sets a benchmark for its rivals.
For Apple, the expanded launch comes as the company has weathered early supply shortages and has estimated shipping times now displaying a wait of 2 – 4 days. When the iPhone 5 went on sale, it quickly sold out and experienced delays of between 3 – 4 weeks as it became the fastest selling smartphone of all time.
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Selling more than 2 million units in its first 24 hours available on preorder, Apple announced in September that it had seen more than 5 million iPhone 5 sales over its first weekend (three days) of general availability, slightly beating the 4 million iPhone 4S sales it recorded in October 2011.
It will be a busy two months for Apple, after the company announced it will launch the iPad mini and 4th-generation iPad on December 7, with the iPhone 5 launching a week later on December 14.
Image Credit: Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty
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