The iPhone 6 coming to more countries this month

Apple's latest smartphone and its first phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus, will be going on sale in a further 36 countries by the end of October, starting with China on Friday.

Apple's latest smartphone and its first phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus, will be going on sale in a further 36 countries by the end of October, starting with China on Friday.

On the same day, the handsets will also be making their debuts in India and Monaco as Apple targets Middle East, European and Asian territories.

The handsets will go on sale in Israel on October 23, and one day later in the Czech Republic, French West Indies, Greenland, Malta, Poland, Reunion Island and South Africa.

By the end of the month the phones will also be officially available in Bahrain, Kuwait, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Guam, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, South Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Thailand, bringing the number of countries where the iPhone is available up to 69.

Apple plans to have rolled the new devices out to 115 countries in total before the end of the year.

The iPhone 6 boasts a 4.7-inch display while the larger iPhone 6 Plus offers a 5.5-inch screen. Both handsets are available in a choice of space grey, gold or silver, and despite achieving record sales -- 10 million+ handsets over their initial weekend of availability -- the handsets have also attracted their fair share of controversy.

First there was 'Bendgate,' a criticism that went viral about how easy it was to bend an iPhone when it was carried in a back pocket, followed by Beardgate and Hairgate.

Thanks to the tiny gap between the screen and the edge of the handset's body, users are complaining that they are snagging their facial hair in the space and like tweezers, they are being plucked every time they take a voice call. Female users have also reported getting their hair tangled around the rear-facing camera which protrudes slightly from the body when making phone calls.

Nevertheless, the handsets, in particular the larger phablet iPhone 6 Plus, are proving very popular. So popular in fact that Apple has reportedly increased manufacturing capacity for the larger Plus model to keep up with demand.