iPhone 5S, 5C release date set in China, rumor claims

Following news about Japan's release date for the iPhone 5S, a new rumor from China tries to peg that country's date for the iPhone 5S and 5C.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

Aug. 22, 2013 10:25 p.m. PT

2 min read

Rumored champagne gold iPhone 5S (L). App Advice

(Update: Another rumor from ifanr -- citing an unnamed source -- claimed that the 5S and 5C have been certified by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. China Telecom and China Unicom will release the two models around September 20, the report claimed.)

Put this in the rumor hopper: A report out of China claims that the iPhone 5S and 5C will be released in China after the US launch.

China's First Financial Daily is reporting that the release date is set for November 28. (Note that BrightWire News also is reporting this date, citing a telecommunications "expert," Yang Tao, who appears in the First Financial Daily report).

That would come about two months after the rumored global launch. The reason: the next-gen iPhone has not completed the verification process required by the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the report said.

This follows a Nikkei report pegging the release date in Japan for September 20 -- 10 days after the US announcement.

The Chinese report also claims that the Qualcomm chips in the new iPhone will support China Mobile's telecommunications network standard.

China Mobile is the largest carrier in the largest smartphone market in the world.

A separate report earlier this week said that Hon Hai (aka Foxconn) will start manufacturing in August a version of the iPhone 5C supporting the TDD-LTE used by China Mobile.

And note that there has been ongoing speculation about which upcoming iPhone will support which standard in China. Currently, the iPhone 5 is incompatible with China's TD-SCDMA standard.

The First Financial report claims the new iPhones will be compatible with TD-SCDMA.