Apple today announced iPhone 5 will be available in South Korea on Friday, December 7, with more than 50 additional countries being added in December, including Brazil, Russia and Taiwan. iPhone 5 is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, completely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless — all while delivering even better battery life.
iPhone 5 is currently available in 47 countries around the world including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features including: Shared Photo Streams, Facebook integration, all-new Maps app, Passbook organization and even more Siri features and languages.
iPhone 5 comes in either black & slate or white & silver for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model, $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model. iPhone 5 will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.
iPhone 4S is available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 4 is available for free with a two-year contract from participating carriers.
iPhone 5 will be available in South Korea on Friday, December 7 and on Friday, December 14 in Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. iPhone 5 will also be available on Friday, December 21 in Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: An aside: We’ve had our iPhone 5’s for over two months now and yesterday used someone’s iPhone 4S. Wow! The difference is even more striking now than on the first day. The iPhone 5 is only the second iPhone model, after the original, where we are still amazed it even exists, much less that we have working models in our hands! The iPhone 5 is so thin and light, it’s really a marvel and its ability to delight the user doesn’t wane. Every time we use iPhone 5 is a treat. Apple really did a magnificent job on iPhone 5; it’s one of their very best products ever.
The line is busy…always chatting it up with Hugo. But since he is returning to Cuba, can a blackberry do a three way call?
Not sure how they could improve on iPhone 5. Except maybe that forgotten patent to embed the front facing camera in the screen itself
Here in Seoul pre-orders for the iPhone 5 began Friday night and reached a reported 300,000 within 2 days. Once again Samsung appears stunned at the fervor of Apple fans in Korea.
Hey taosbob; My son is deployed over near Seoul. Is the only way to purchase an iPhone 5 online over there? Do these iphones come with SIM cards so when he comes back to the states – he switch in a US carrier ? TIA
Good to hear, thanks for his service. No, iphones are sold about everywhere on the street now, although the iphone 5 will be in tight supply for awhile it seems. The trick is to get a clerk who can deal in English. There are (surprise) many tricky issues involved in selling phones to “foreigners” (are they North Korean or Chinese spies? LOL), plus discriminatory policies about who can buy on time and who has to pay the full price at purchase (apparently an arcane insurance issue). The phones here are GSM and so will likely work with ATT in the U.S., but the LTE frequencies are different, so they work only here, AFAIK. All the best!
Reply with links disappeared into black hole, sorry. My figures were from the Korean press. There are now news reports in English citing older statistics of 200,000 around to be found if you’re interested. Yes, the Joongang Daily (중앙일보) has family connections to Samsung, but the advertising clout of Samsung is so vast and their political influence so strong, “truth” on Apple issues only leaks out around the margins. The Netherlands court decision against SSung was covered by only one minor publication.
hey Taosbob,
thx for the update… Was that reported by one of their newspapers or Apple website? I think Samsung owners/family also owns one of the papers their if i am not mistaken.
@stucktrader Sorry, see reply above, appearing to reply to myself 🙂
Yay finally the iphone5 is coming to Malaysia! Looks like my iphone4 will be retiring!
MDN: how many scratches are on your iPhone 5? Do you use protective case or not?
No scratches, no case.
Is your iPhone 5 from the first batch? Or you bought it like month after the start of the purchase?
I mean that there were rumours that Apple might have adjusted anodizing process slightly to have better quality. Updated phones would only appear like after month after the very first batch.
Couldn’t disagree with u mate except I consider the best apple product to be OSX. It’s a marvel for victims of windows.