Apple has revealed in a recent announcement that its latest iPhone 5 smartphone has finally received regulatory approval in China; and the handset will hit the Chinese markets some time in December.

With Chinese regulators giving the clearance to the iPhone 5, the device is apparently set for its launch in the second-biggest Apple market, where the unavailability of the popular handset till now had made a notable dent in the company's share of device sales.

While the iPhone 5 - which was launched in the US in September - is a much-awaited handset in China because it is the newest iPhone iteration, statistics from IDC research firm have revealed that the delay of the release of the handset in China resulted in a situation in which the smartphone market share of Apple was halved, to 10 percent, during the second quarter.

Meanwhile, according to the information shared on the website of the Telecom Regulatory Authority - which is under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology -, two iPhone 5 models received the go-ahead from Chinese regulatory authorities on Thursday.

The two models which have received the clearance from the Chinese regulators include a WCDMA model called the A1429, which runs on the China Unicom network; and a CDMA model called the A1442, which runs on the China Telecom network.