Apple Announces December Launches for iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and Fourth-Generation iPad in China

Following word earlier this week that the iPhone 5 had received final certification in China, Apple today announced that it will be bringing not only the iPhone 5 but also the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad to the country over the next several weeks.

Apple today announced the Wi-Fi versions of iPad mini and fourth generation iPad with Retina display will be available in China on Friday, December 7, and iPhone 5 will be available on Friday, December 14. iPad mini and the new fourth generation iPad with Retina display are currently available in 42 countries, and iPhone 5 is available in 47 countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK.

ipad mini china
China now accounts for 15% of Apple's revenues, making the new product launches a significant development for the company. Apple's Chinese product launches have typically lagged well behind those in other countries, but the company has been working to shorten those gaps. The iPhone 4S launched in China three months after the device's debut, while the third-generation iPad took four months to arrive in the country.

With today's announcement, the iPhone 5 will be arriving in China roughly two and a half months after the initial round of launches, while the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad are coming to China just a month after their debut in the U.S. and other first-round markets.

Related Roundups: iPad, iPad mini
Tag: China
Related Forums: iPad, iPhone

Top Rated Comments

kcamfork Avatar
149 months ago
Low stocks or no stocks. Hard to find anywhere. Long waits for buyers in countries where it's already officially launched...

Let's immediately launch into one of the most populous countries in the world.

Nothing against China but you would think they would want to be able to somewhat keep pace with orders in the markets where it's already launched before going into other HUGE markets and further frustrating more people with longer wait times.

(and yes, I know all about the positive business effect of scarcity marketing).

Now crank up those wait times even more while chunks of production are further split among new markets.

This mode of thinking makes no sense, and is typical entitled-like thinking here in the USA...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chriscrk Avatar
149 months ago
I just want the iPhone 5 to arrive in Chile already! I'm tired of my stupid android based phone (if you can even call it that).
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Thunderhawks Avatar
149 months ago
Low stocks or no stocks. Hard to find anywhere. Long waits for buyers in countries where it's already officially launched...

Let's immediately launch into one of the most populous countries in the world.

Nothing against China but you would think they would want to be able to somewhat keep pace with orders in the markets where it's already launched before going into other HUGE markets and further frustrating more people with longer wait times.

(and yes, I know all about the positive business effect of scarcity marketing).

Now crank up those wait times even more while chunks of production are further split among new markets.

Never learned to wait for non essential things for life?

Geez! Let's go postal!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FreeRange1 Avatar
149 months ago
Well said, Apple products are high end luxury in China where the vast majority of the population could not dream of buying any of them.[COLOR="#808080"]

----------

I am an expat living in China and can assure you that 10's of millions of middle class AND lower middle class people are buying Apple products. With an extremely high savings rate, they spend above average amounts of their income on "luxury goods". Further, even those that can't afford Apple products will save for a long time to buy one. They most certainly do dream of owning one.

Final point, the Chinese middle class is now larger than that of the US!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kalsta Avatar
149 months ago
Low stocks or no stocks. Hard to find anywhere. Long waits for buyers in countries where it's already officially launched...

Let's immediately launch into one of the most populous countries in the world.

Nothing against China but you would think they would want to be able to somewhat keep pace with orders in the markets where it's already launched before going into other HUGE markets and further frustrating more people with longer wait times.

If you happened to live in China, would you feel the same do you think?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KirkL Avatar
149 months ago
Low stocks or no stocks. Hard to find anywhere. Long waits for buyers in countries where it's already officially launched...

Let's immediately launch into one of the most populous countries in the world.

Nothing against China but you would think they would want to be able to somewhat keep pace with orders in the markets where it's already launched before going into other HUGE markets and further frustrating more people with longer wait times.

(and yes, I know all about the positive business effect of scarcity marketing).

Now crank up those wait times even more while chunks of production are further split among new markets.

Looks like they've caught up with demand if the US is any indication (and with the US contributing to something like 30% of all iPhone sales, I'd say it probably is...).

And just because China is the most populous country doesn't mean the 1.3+ billion population will line up to buy the phone.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
apple id account

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

Saturday April 27, 2024 12:41 am PDT by
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
macos sonoma feature purple green

Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over

Friday April 26, 2024 6:34 am PDT by
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...