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Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL iPhone 5 has finally received the blessing of the Chinese regulators, there will be a monster December debut in a highly competitive market where Samsung beat Apple in to the China market with new products.

The China release will add a welcome bonus to the Apple Christmas sales, along with the release in Korea and the new iTunes 11.

Apple Inc’s. NASDAQ:AAPL second-largest market and the China fans are eagerly awaiting the latest model of its smartphone, the iPhone 5, which was released in the United States in September.

Apple has said that the iPhone 5 will be released in China in December, but the long wait caused Apple’s smartphone market share to halve to 10 percent in the second quarter as users switch brands or hold out for the latest model, data from industry research firm IDC showed in August.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority, under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, showed two iPhone 5 models on its website that received approval on Thursday. The two are the A1429, a WCDMA model that runs on China Unicom HKG:0762 network, and the A1442, a CDMA model that runs on China Telecom Corp HKG:0728 network.

The chairman of China Unicom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, said early this month that it expected to start selling the iPhone 5 this year as it aims for a major boost in 3G users to 100 million by the year-end, up from 67 million in the first nine months.

Netizens on Sina Corp’s NASDAQ:SINA Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging platform, cheered the imminent arrival of the latest iPhone. “I’m all ready! The iPhone 5 is coming!” said one.