China Unicom has been given permission to start selling the iPhone 4S on the mainland with Apple fans hopeful the product will be available for Christmas, the Beijing Morning Post reports.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a network permit to the second largest carrier in the world's largest mobile phone market to sell the trendy gadget from this month.

China Unicom will be the first to offer the phone using WCDMA. China Telecom customers, operating on CDMA2000, will have to wait a little longer.

Apple or China Unicom has not declared when the phone will be put on sale, but some insiders predict the phone will be available in mid-December because of imminent Christmas season and Chinese lunar new year.

The iPhone 4S has been on sale globally since October 2011. When Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in Hong Kong last month, they sold out within 10 minutes. Riot police had to be called to control scalpers when the phone was put on sale.