“In 2011 Apple increased the availability of the iPhone by adding operators,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco. “In 2012 Apple increased availability by bringing the phone to operators more quickly. The question is: how much did iPhone 5 availability increase, exactly?”

“There is a way to find out. As an approximation, Apple periodically reports the availability of new iPhones by country,” Dediu writes. “For example, Apple stated that they reached 100 countries for the iPhone 5 before 2012 ended. They also gave similar launch data for the iPhone 4S.”

Dediu writes, “However, country-level availability is not ideal because countries vary greatly in their ability to absorb iPhones. Announcing availability in Mauritius is not nearly as important as announcing Madagascar. A better measure would be to track the countries’ populations being added, or, better still, the populations which subscribe to operators who have a distribution contract with Apple.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Dan K." and "Sarah" for the heads up.]