A worker for China’s largest mobile carrier has confirmed that the iPhone 5 will launch on China Mobile in September. What does that mean for Americans? An iPhone 5 as early as August.
We know that Apple COO Tim Cook was in China earlier this week, working on bringing the iPhone 5 to China Mobile. If Apple can strike a deal, it’ll be a huge coup for them: a $70 billion dollar market across over 600m new customers.
Now a China Mobile worker has apparently said that a deal has officially been struck, bringing the fifth-generation iPhone to China in September.
When Apple released the iPhone 4 in June of 2010, China didn’t get it until late September, three whole months later. Even if Apple shortens the time it takes them to bring the next iPhone to China, the United States will still get it first, meaning that it’s possible that instead of the ubiquitous September launch of the iPhone 5 we’ve been hearing rumors about, the most recent rumor of an American August launch will prove true instead.
Still, for right now, caution in getting too excited about this report. Although we know Apple is working with China Mobile to work out a deal, the hearsay report of a random employee isn’t exactly worth its weight in gold when it comes to predicting the moves of the most secretive tech company in Silicon Valley.
[via iPhone Download Blog]
