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Tonight, the world will be watching as Apple announces the iPhone 5. Here's what keen investors should keep an eye out for. [File photo]

2. Carrier partnerships

The iPhone is currently distributed on more than 250 wireless carriers in more than 100 countries. That's only half of the roughly 500 wireless carriers there are in the world, so there are plenty of additional partnerships to be inked and plenty more iPhones to sell abroad. However, let's be clear about something: CFO Peter Oppenheimer has already said that Apple doesn't "expect to add any significant new country or carrier additions in the September quarter," so don't expect any official announcements.

That being said, what I'll be looking for are hints of partnerships on the horizon. The most significant of which would be China Mobile, the largest carrier in the world with 688 million mobile subscribers at last count. This glaring carrier omission to date has been explained by unique homegrown cellular standards that China Mobile uses, TD-SCDMA for 3G and TD-LTE for 4G.

The Qualcomm 28-nanometer baseband processor that's expected inside the iPhone 5 supports both of these standards, which would lay the technical foundation for a future partnership with China Mobile.

Of course, Apple would never say something like: "The iPhone 5! With Qualcomm's new 28-nanometer baseband! China Mobile, here we come!" But it might highlight its world-mode compatibilities with different global standards, a selling point for business travellers, for example.

Apple won't serve these carrier hints up on a silver iPlatter, if at all, so you'll need to be paying close attention.

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