Apple Inc has received clearance from the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the People's Republic of China to sell its latest iPhone model in the country from December.
The Cupertino-based firm had been waiting an approval to make its iPhone 5 available to China since its launch in September. The company said that iPhone 5 will debut in China's market on Dec 14. Ahead of iPhone 5 launch Apple's other devices like WiFi-only version of iPad mini and iPad 4 will also debut in the market on Dec 7.
According to reports, the delay in entry of Apple's latest device has prompted its fans in China to switch to other available brands in the market. Despite the delay, fans are nonetheless excited by the news of the arrival of iPhone 5.
The Website Telecom Regulatory Authority of China has showcased two iPhone 5 models which received approval.The two variants include A1429 - a WCDMA model that runs on China Unicom's network, and the A1442 - a CDMA model that runs on China Telecom Corp's network.
According to the latest report by research firm Gartner, the sales of mobile phones in China have gone up due to the rising demand for smartphones.
"In China, sales of mobile phones grew driven by sales of smartphones, while demand of feature phones remained weak," the report said.
China's second-largest mobile network Unicom's chairman had earlier expressed that with the entry of iPhone 5 in the market 3G users are expected to touch 100 million in the country by the end of the year.
