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.
iPhone 5 is expected to sell out before Christmas after review of retailer data from Those Tech Guys. This technology reviews website has published a report about the stock levels expected from online retailers for the Christmas season.
Those Tech Guys have researched the iPhone 5 and its sellout of initial stock in September. Over 5 million units were reported sold during the initial release and new units have been manufactured. While no sales data has been released for Christmas, the iPhone 5 is expected to sell out again before the end of the holiday season. Those Tech Guys found that one retailer online had these phones in stock and at a lower price than the Apple online store.
The iPhone 5 is superior to the earlier versions according to reports online. One of the the most commented on features by actual users online is the dual core processor. This technology has been used inside of other Apple products for the past 7 years.
Apple decided to upgrade its processor in the iPhone 5 to the new dual core processor to speed up this phone.