Russian iPhone deal near?
August 18th 2008
Back on Aug 4--nearly a year in iPhone time--IGM reported comments by Evgeny Butman, the director of Apple's official Russian distributor, indicating that the iPhone wouldn't go on sale there until 2009.
Today, Bloomberg reports a rumor that OAO VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest wireless carrier, and OAO MegaFon, the third-biggest, may sign a deal this week with Apple.
According to Bloomberg, Apple wants each operator to commit to buy 1 million to 1.5 million iPhones.
It's widely believed that about 500,000 unlocked iPhones are already in use in Russia.
Editor's note: Two to 3-million handsets over what period of time? With a half-million iPhones already in use, one images there's still plenty of pent-up demand waiting to be fulfilled.
Perhaps a year then?
