The iPhone 5(s AAPL) reached nearly three dozen new countries on Friday, the most notable of those launches coming in China, where its arrival has been highly anticipated. But news video coverage of the launch at one of the country’s main Apple Store locations — Beijing — showed the newest iPhone’s debut Friday morning was not greeted with the long lines, fanfare and chaos that accompanied the launch of the iPhone 4S in January.

Before we assume that short lines on Day 1 mean that the iPhone has peaked in China, or that this bodes terribly for the iPhone 5’s success in this important market for Apple, let’s remember four things:

• Apple learned its lesson from the near-riot at the iPhone 4S launch: they implemented a system where buyers have to sign up and be approved one day in advance. It was practically designed to eliminate lines.
• It was…