The Economic Times reports that Apple will be launching the iPhone 5 in India on November 2, one week from today. The launch had previously been rumored for today, but the new report claims that shipping delays forced Apple to push the launch back by a week.
Apple's global rollout plan was addressed in the company's earnings conference call yesterday, with CEO Tim Cook acknowledging in response to a question from JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz that schedules are somewhat fluid based on supply and demand.
What we did initially, Mark, was we planned the first 30-40 countries prior to introducing the product and rolled those out across September on two different dates. The balance of the quarter we planned with an eye toward the supply and what we think the demand will be, but we do plan these in advance and so it is not a precise science. And we obviously have to plan those with several weeks of notice and so occasionally it can be different than what we think.
It does appear that this next round of launches coming on November 2 is a fairly substantial one, as we have also seen reports saying that the iPhone 5 will be launching on that date in Bulgaria, Malta, Romania, and Thailand, and there are likely to be other countries included in this group.
Apple noted during its conference call that it remains on track to make the iPhone 5 available in at least 100 countries by the end of the year, although many of those additions will not be coming until December. The device launched in nine countries on September 21, with an additional 22 countries seeing debuts on September 28.
Update 10:01 AM: Greece is also included in this round of launches. MacRumors posters have noted that the device will also be launching in Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.
