Second iPhone 3G carrier reaches Turkey as Russia nears deal

[AppleInsider]

Those looking to buy an iPhone in Turkey will have a second choice besides Vodafone. Simultaneously, two Russian carriers have allegedly been tapped to carry the device.

Turkcell to carry iPhone 3G

Turkey's largest locally-owned carrier, Turkcell, announced on Monday that it would carry iPhone 3G for its subscribers and has posted a registration page for customers that want more information regarding the device.

In characteristic fashion for advance iPhone announcements, Turkcell hasn't disclosed its phone plans or launch date, and says only that it will release the iPhone "later this year." Turkey isn't part of the 21 countries so far selected as part of iPhone 3G's second wave on August 22nd.

Earlier this year, Turkey was already highlighted as a future recipient as part of a multi-nation Vodafone deal.

Russian carriers nearing iPhone deal?

Apple may soon end the absence of iPhones in one of its largest unserved countries, according to one claim.

Russian business paper Vedomosti on Monday cited unnamed sources asserting that the country's second- and third-largest carriers, VimpelCom and MegaFon, were in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone.

Bulk ordering requirements from the American carrier, however, are said to be complicating the matter. Carriers are allegedly being asked to purchase between 1 million and 1.5 million iPhones each -- enough that the top three carriers would have to sell as many as 4.5 million devices over the life of the contract. That's as much as 12 percent of all Russian phone sales and nearly one third of the money involved, according to one local analyst.

By contrast, no one phone owns more than 2 percent of the market in Russia.

Apple hasn't commented on the claim, though company chief Steve Jobs in June said he hoped to have iPhone agreements in place for both China and Russia by the end of 2008.

[solipsism]

Is Apple counting sales to carriers as sales or are they only counting the sales that carriers make to consumers?

According to the stats given, that does seem like too many iPhones for Russia.

[McDave]

Is Apple hedging it's bets with multiple carriers because it believes the call issues aren't product related? My Ericsson T39M used to drop off the network here because it was 'unsupported' maybe Apple's stealthy product release/lack of testing shows they're prone to varying network configs and rather than looking bad while fingers point they're revving up carriers to make the changes.

OK, it's thin. McD

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple may soon end the absence of iPhones in one of its largest unserved countries, according to one claim.

I think you could safely state that it is the largest unserved country, seeing as that Russia is the largest country out there, served or unserved. By out there, I mean on the planet.

I just Wikied countries by population just out of curiosity--I was surprised to see Pakistan and Nigeria with a larger estimated populations than Russia. Go figure. I guess they noticed too, hence this Georgia business...

[iVlad]

i am 100% sure Apple will bend contracts like it did for the rest of the countries. c'mon if they have enough people wanting iPhone in Mexico (smaller country), they must have as much anywhere else. Russian mobile business is very greedy.
I think Ukraine should have the deal before russia.

[McDave]

Originally Posted by iVlad

i am 100% sure Apple will bend contracts like it did for the rest of the countries. c'mon if they have enough people wanting iPhone in Mexico (smaller country), they must have as much anywhere else. Russian mobile business is very greedy.
I think Ukraine should have the deal before russia.

Maybe Georgia first

McD

[ynx]

Thank god Turkcell is getting it too. Who wants to deal with switching to Vodafone anyway