Apple wants the iPhone 5, which will be launched in October 2012, to be the world’s first ‘truly global’ phone. To do this, the iPhone 5 will include support for China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G network, which has more than 650 million subscribers. China Mobile is the world’s largest cellular operator, which shows Apple is working to position the latest iPhone as a global device. By global, Apple means the English speaking world and China. The company says it will add support for more languages in 2012/2013, with Spanish being a priority.

According to a report on AppleInsider, Shaw Wu of financial consulting firm Sterne Agee says he has the inside track on some of the iPhone 5′s features. For example, the new iPhone will include greater support for Chinese customers through the iOS 6 operating system and digital concierge Siri, with the ability to understand and respond in Mandarin and Cantonese.

The iPhone 5 will also have greater integration for Chinese social networking sites like Baidu. Among the other enhancements will be a slightly larger screen size, 4G LTE wireless modem and a slight redesign. The 4G factor won’t be of much use to European or Chinese customers though. Both Europe and China probably won’t have many 4G LTE carriers until 2013-2015.

“We believe these new features will likely help drive a significant upgrade and new user cycle more powerful than what we saw with the iPhone 4 and 4S,” wrote Wu in an investor note.

If all this is true, now is probably a good time to buy Apple shares. If the iPhone can crack the Chinese market, who knows how much cash Apple could generate in the next couple of years.