You’ll read a lot of stories talking about who is winning the smartphone race in China. The statistics are helpful, but they don’t always tell the whole picture when you consider factors in the market like product launches, network availability. The first quarter of 2013 should be the market’s best indicator of where the major companies stand now that many have put their best players in the game.

Apple has passed the final hurdle and received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the People’s Republic of China to sell the iPhone 5. Apple announced the iPhone 5 will be available on the Mainland by December 14 in a press release last Friday. As mentioned in previous posts, the new phone will be made available on China Unicom and China Telecom. However, the iPhone 5 remains unavailable for China’s largest telecom, China Mobile, for now.
Judging from the invitations, it seems like a pretty sure thing that Apple will reveal the iPhone 5 at its press event next week. Originally, rumors were saying that Apple would debut the new iPad Mini alongside the iPhone 5, but now that looks like it may not be the case.
Instead, Apple may opt to announce a new line of iPods at its event, and 9to5Mac is reporting that it may even announce more than one new iPod variant.
