MANILA, Philippines—Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company, announced Monday evening (Manila time) that the new Apple iPhone 5 would be launched in the Philippines officially on December 14.
A press release on the company’s website said the Philippines was included in a list of more than 50 countries where the new smart phone would be launched this December.
The first in the list would be South Korea, where the new iPhone will hit stores on December 7, Friday.
A week after, the device will become available 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.
Before the year ends, 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 will also get the new iPhone.
The statement did not have details on carrier availability. The iPhone 5’s predecessor, the iPhone 4S, is currently available on contract from Globe Telecom and Smart Communications.
The iPhone 5 is already available in 47 countries around the world including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK.
Apart from improved hardware, the iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, Apple’s newest operating system for mobile devices. The new software comes with over 200 new features including: Shared Photo Streams, Facebook integration, all-new Maps app, Passbook organization, and voice-based personal assistant Siri.
Below is the link to the Apple press release: