Apple (AAPL) said its recently launched iPhone 4S model will be available in China and 21 additional countries beginning Jan. 13. Following the launches, the iPhone 4S will be available in more than 90 countries.
There was no word from Apple if the device would expand beyond its current Chinese partner China Unicom (CHU), which has been offering Apple’s mobile phone since late 2009. However, there are reportedly millions of iPhone devices that have been modified to run on various networks in China on an unofficial level.
Rumors had suggested that Apple would expand the device to China Telecom, which runs a CDMA-based network in China and could take advantage of the devices CDMA capabilities available in the model offered by domestic carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. The only hold up would be the need to tweak the chipset’s radio component to handle the different CDMA frequencies used in China.
There have also been rumors that China’s largest carrier, China Mobile, was looking to add the device to its lineup. China Mobile runs a network using TD-SDCMA technology, thus requiring Apple to produce a device with a specific chipset.
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