The iPhone 5 goes on sale in 22 more countries today

Making good on its promise, Apple today is rolling out the iPhone 5 to 22 new countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The iPhone 5 originally launched on Friday, September 21, in nine major markets, including the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Apple’s self-imposed goal is to have the new phone available in over a hundred countries across 240 carriers by year’s end…

We’ll see whether Apple is able to handle the increased iPhone 5 footprint, especially as U.S. shipping estimate still sits at 2-3 weeks.

9to5Mac reported on Tuesday that carriers in countries included in today’s international roll-out are now informing customers they won’t be able to meet all pre-order requests.

Per Reuters, Belgian carrier Mobistar won’t receive enough units from Apple to fulfill all of its pre-orders.

And over in New Zealand, carrier Telecom confirmed that launch day stock is limited as pre-orders essentially sold out.

The iPhone 5 is not available contract-free in the United States, but Verizon will sell you GSM-unlocked device that works on AT&T, T-Mobile and other GSM carriers, courtesy of Verizon’s deal with the United States Federal Communications Commission.

Apple announced that it sold five million iPhone 5 units during the opening weekend, a million more than the iPhone 4S did. The achievement catapulted the stock above the $700 mark for the first time, though some watchers pointed out it missed Gene Munster’s estimate calling for six to ten million devices.

Others, like Topeka Capital’s Brian White, beg to differ:

“Don’t be fooled,” writes an analyst. “This is an epic launch.”

More than half of respondents in iDB’s poll think the launch was a successful one.

On the other hand, it should be noted that Munster historically hasn’t been terribly accurate with launch predictions. Additionally, Apple’s numbers include only devices that ended up in customers’ hands and exclude pre-orders that have not been delivered yet.

Limited supplies also held back initial sales.

In other words, Apple sold every iPhone 5 it could make.

Had it been able to produce more iPhone 5 units, it’s fairly safe to assume Apple would have sold them all due to pent-up demand.

Think I’m full of it?

Go to the online Apple store, place an order and let me know about your shipping estimate.

I’m also eager to learn about iPhone availability at your country’s carriers and retailers.

If you have some interesting line images to share, drop them on dujkan [ at ] idownloadblog [ dot ] com and I’ll add best ones to this article.