The iPhone 4S will be landing in China and 22 other countries starting Jan. 13 and this represents the fastest iPhone rollout ever for Apple.
The iPhone 4S sports a similar physical design as the previous year’s model but it boasts an improved processor, an 8-megapixel camera, the voice-controlled Siri and the new iOS 5 software. Along with China, the latest iPhone will also be available in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, China, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda.
The sheer reach of the availability so quickly is a good sign that Apple’s production line is working well but out of these countries, China represents the largest prize. To give you a scope of how many potential smartphone customers there could be in China, the country’s largest carrier has more subscribers than there are people in the United States and Japan combined. While the vast majority of Chinese mobile phone users are on feature phones, Apple has been making strides in this country with its iPhone – there’s also a robust market for iPhone knockoffs.
[Via Apple]