iPhone 5 to hit 101 countries by end of year

The iPhone 5 will be rolled out in 54 new countries in December, Apple said on Monday.

The device, launched in September, is already available in 47 countries. However, Apple's newly released schedule suggests a staged rollout for dozens more countries during this month.

The schedule looks like this:

• 7 December — South Korea
• 14 December — 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
• 21 December — 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

ZDNet has asked Samsung in how many countries its Galaxy S3 — the most prominent competitor to the iPhone 5 — is available. The company had not responded at the time of writing.