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Apple prepares to unleash iPhone 5S, 5C for the GREAT BRAWL OF CHINA

Not one, but two new Jesus phones on way

Apple will launch an assault on the booming Chinese smartphone market tomorrow with the announcement of two new iPhones.

As well as the expected iPhone 5S, Apple is more or less certain to introduce a cheaper mobe thought to be called the 5C, which is aimed at China and developing markets.

China is now the world's biggest smartphone market, with overall mega mobe shipments to soar by 84 per cent to 352 million units this year, according to research firm Canalys.

Chinese smartmobe buyers tend to eschew the pricey iPhone in favour of less expensive Android models, only a small proportion of which are made by rivals Samsung or Lenovo.

Tim Cook will be hoping to woo more buyers in the enormous nation and also resurrect some of the sense of occasion generated by Steve Jobs when he appears before an invitation-only event in Cupertino to announce the new smartphones.

Soon after the announcement is made, a similar event will take place in Beijing. The European launch will take place in Berlin, which has this year replaced London as the venue for Euro product announcements.

Apple-watchers also expect the fruity firm to unveil a new link-up with the massive Chinese mobile operator China Mobile, which has not yet inked a deal to offer its whopping 745 million users the chance to use an Apple phone.

A recent report found that Apple had a paltry 4.6 per cent share of the massive Chinese smartphone market. Last quarter, there were 90.39 million smartphones sold in the People's Republic, with some 18.6 per cent sold by Samsung.

The new, cheaper iPhone is rumoured to come in a variety of colours - hence the name 5C - while the top-of-the-range version will come in blinged-up "champagne" gold, unless angry French wine lovers stick their oar in.

Apple is also rumoured to be looking to an even bigger future, with a report in the Wall Street Journal suggesting the fruity firm is planning to release iPhones with bigger screens. According to the newspaper, Apple could release phones with 6-inch screens, a full two inches larger than those of the iPhone 5.

The existence of two new iPhones were accidentally leaked after a slip-up by one of the two Chinese Apple carriers, China Telecom.

"China has been chosen as [the/a] first country where the iPhone 5S/5C will be shipped!" one over-excited writer claimed on a China Telecom blog site.

Pictures of the new iPhone 5S also emerged on a Chinese blog, showing what appears to be a fingerprint detector around the home button. If the pictures are genuine, this device is likely to allow fanbois to access their phone by swiping their finger across the detector.

David Webber, managing director of Intelligent Environments, a financial services software provider, said this would encourage fanbois to access bank accounts using their fondleslab. “Apple’s new iPhone fingerprint scanner is set to trigger a huge upswing in the number of Brits accessing their bank accounts via a mobile phone.

"According to our research, two-fifths (40 per cent) of UK consumers would be more likely to access their bank accounts via a smartphone if it had a built-in fingerprint scanner. That’s equivalent to over 18.4 million UK consumers," he added.

The 5S is also rumoured to include an A7 processor, which would represent a CPU speed boost and a reduction in power consumption on the current A6 chip. ®

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