Apple's iPhone 3Gs, widely available in Russia on the black market, will be offered legally by at least two phone companies.
On Monday, Russia's third-largest mobile-phone company, MegaFon, announced an agreement with Apple to start selling the iPhone 3G later this year. No further details were provided.
Late last week, Vimpelcom, another of the big three carriers in Russia, also announced an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone 3G. A Russian business daily newspaper, Vedomosti, reported several days ago that a deal had been made by Apple with the largest mobile-phone operator in Russia, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). However, there has not yet been a formal announcement of an agreement with MTS.
Black Market Nears 700,000
Even before legal distribution, Russia is already one of the largest markets for iPhones in the world.
Some industry observers have estimated that monthly sales figures for unauthorized sales of iPhones are around 20,000, with the total number of black-market iPhones possibly reaching 700,000 by the end of this year. Anecdotal reports indicate that many of them are purchased in other countries, brought into Russia, sold for black-market prices of around $1,000, and then, with another fee often paid to a skilled user, unlocked so they can be used with phone services there.
Some observers have noted that the iPhone 3G, when purchased through legal Russian channels, will be tied to that particular carrier's service  . But many Russian users have shown a preference for buying handsets and service contracts separately, an arrangement which the black-market versions support.
The sale of the iPhones is expected to begin in October. The Vedomosti report indicated that MTS alone expects to sell one million iPhone 3Gs over the next two years, and all three carriers together are targeting 3.5 million devices over two years.
Some Success in Europe
The news of carrier deals in Russia comes shortly after reports last week of the iPhone 3G's success in some parts of Europe.
In an interview last week, the head of Deutsche Telekom told the German magazine Focus that its wireless company, T-Mobile, has sold 120,000 devices in Europe since it was made available on July 11. The sales figure was reached, said Hamid Akhavan, in spite of distribution problems.
Those problems, said Akhavan, included customers having to wait for weeks for delivery. He attributed the delays to Apple's decision to distribute the iPhone 3G in 22 countries simultaneously.
Akhavan noted that 75,000 of the sales were in Germany. In Europe, T-Mobile also sells the iPhone in Austria and the Netherlands.
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