Apple taps MTS to bring iPhone 3G to Russia
Reuters reports that a "market source" has confirmed that Apple has finally sealed a deal to bring the iPhone 3G to Russia in an official capacity, launching on Mobile TeleSystems "likely" in ??????? (October, that is). Neither MTS nor Apple would agree to comment on the situation -- no surprise there -- but seeing how Russia is one of the remaining gargantuan markets where the iPhone has yet to materialize, it seems like a no-brainer deal for all parties involved.
[Via mocoNews]
[Via mocoNews]



















in Soviet Russia, Putin tap *you*
Then he slips some polonium-210 into your caviar...
"In International News today, Russian citizens overthrew the government in what is being dubbed the "Tap-Tap Revolution""
I can still imagine 'W' sittin' down and calling him Mr. Puddin'
russia doesnt deserve an iphone, period.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
The commies can keep their AMPS phones for all I care.
Wow... it's interesting the double moral some people have. So... tell me... we from the US deserve iPhones because we don't invade other countries killing thousands of people? It's interesting how our government can act as the police of the world and when Russia wants to do the same thing we think that they are bad people. LOL! Tell me ANYTHING that Russia has done recently that we haven't done recetly either. We are as bad as Russia is, and I say "we" because "we" voted our politicians, so it's our fault we have the government we have.
May I also remind you that the Georgian war was started by the Georgian president and that the US helped Georgia out when Russia started counter-attacking? Can't say that we're not involved in this war either. Is there any war that we aren't going to be involved in?
It's obvious that a lot of people only read local press. Read some press from abroad and compare it to our press and you'll find out that a lot of countries are actually more mad with Georgia for starting a war they couldn't win than with Russia for counter-attacking harder than they should have.
Still the US starts putting anti-missiles in Poland... Russia isn't happy about it. Guess what... does Cuba sound familiar? Well now their Cuba is now our Poland, definitely not at the same level, but it's sure in the same category.
Stop acting like sheep and start reading news from news agencies that aren't from our own country. You'd be surprised how biased our news are. Not saying that news in other countries aren't, but you can definitely get a better picture when you have a lot of different sources and not just the same pro-"we are always the good ones and the rest are all bad people".
Good night, and good luck.
Putin = Oppression
You = gullible target for propaganda
?? fail ^
KILL IT
Russia: I can has Georgia?
Us: No, but u can has iPhone!
Russia: k thx bye!
The iphone should distract them long enough for the US to put in more missile shields in their surrounding countries. muahahaha!
Apple is a pawn of the US Government, here is the plan: Sell 10 million iPhones to the wealthiest of Russians, then flip the internal kill switch and bam, 10 million little nuclear bombs will go off sending the country into disaster. The plan won't work though, because it will only kill politicians, lawyers, bankers, and car salesmen; see all of the engineers, scientists, and smart people use winmo.
Do they really work
getString,
Actually the smart non-corrupt people in Russia probably can't afford a smartphone at all.
And the Russian fashionistas will own the iPhone for about 3 days until they find some new hotness. ...and people think Americans are image-conscious!
@getString
Wouldn't it be easier if they just had a mass unboxing of Omnias?
A picture of Dmitry Medvedev would make more sense..
Medvedev is under Putin's other lapel.
Not if you're looking for a photo of who REALLY controls The Sovi- uh, I mean Russia.
Medvedev makes more sense because he already own an iPhone.
i'm all for it. give them all the faulty chip set iphones to clear out the inventory so i can finally buy the non-lemon version.
You forgot to put the red horns on this a--holes head. Apple, just like Yahoo, is showing that the "to hell with people, money comes first" attitude is what works in business. Oh well, the iPhone has never appealed to me.
um... because other tech companies don't sell products to oppressive countries? list please!
So, according to you, companies should not sell their products to the people of Russia or China, because the respective guys that run those governments are assholes?
Punish the people for the oppressive government. Gotcha.
Well, why not? You guys are forgetting that is the people that tell government employees what to do and not the other way around. If there's something the people want and the government is doing something that prevents that, you'll bet there's going to be hell to pay. Just ask the Dems how much heat their getting right now for their position against drilling in the U.S.
um Rob, I seem to have misplaced my smart pills, but i have no idea wtf you're talking about
Are you telling us that the people of Russia tell the government what to do? Seriously?
i really hate people who think they know what they're talking about but they're actually talking out of their arses...
Seriously, in {soviet} russia, putin votes for you. end of story.
stupid geeks, doesnt even really know what happened between Russia and Georgia....stop watching US media, and start reading Russian blogs, if you want to know the truth....fcking tired of your american bullshit....
and stop saying something like "In Soviet Russia, something had you" or some shit like that, its just stupid.....
Don't be mad because Amerika won the Cold War. We tore down your wallz lawl
riiiiight.. instead of international news i should read Russian propaganda for the "inside scoop" on Motherlands's Glorious Conquests
In soviet russia, russian blogs read you. (and then invade you)
phanbouy
I said read Russian BLOGS, were people who LIVE there, or know wtf is going on there, telling whats going on there....
international media doesnt want you guys to know the truth, especially american media....
for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8XI2Chc6uQ
im not gonna say anything else, cause its just pointless, your guys already "zombies"...your gov. "washed" your brains...
Nobody won the Cold War. It fucked over everyone and made the entire planet a bit less safe to live on.
Don't listen to anyone but the Ossetians.
@horrific
May be you should stop reading and watching russian mass media so your eyes are not covered as easily as ours.
I'm willing to bet there are no less than 10 governments represented in these comments, so which gov. are you referring to? Honestly though, lighten up, don't take it too seriously.
In any case, it's in Russia's - and the Eastern European countries - best interests not to have an iPhone. Look, if there are reports saying the Russia-Georgia conflict was finally sparked by a flat tire/tyre/pneu/автошина (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2570754/Georgia-conflict-How-a-flat-tyre-took-the-Caucasus-to-war.html), image what catastrophes lie ahead with dropped calls? Can you imagine the mayhem if Medvedev thinks Yushenko hung up on him?!
READ TEH RUSSHIN BLOGZ 4 TEH TRUTHINESS. OH MOTHALANDZ! WE BRING TOGETHA REPUBLIKS UNDER IRON FIST LIEK GOOD OLD DAYZ, DA?
No possibility of nationalist conflict of interest there, right?
Engadget is going to have to add nationality flags to our IDs, so we can know which government and media we're denigrating. Otherwise, this will never get anywhere.
Well, go believe all the bullcrap your self-appointed dictator Putin, and not his little puppet Medvedev, feeds you. I for one don't believe a single word coming out of this asshole's mouth. He'll turn civilization back to the early 80's again. Just what we've been craving for. Get it, komrade?
Riiiiiiigh. Horrific, I'll tell you exactly why the 12 year old girl and her mom were saying only good things about the Russians, because if they didn't on US television, either they or their family who are still in Russia would have been punished.
If you want the truth on anything, look in a history book. Nothing is clear except in hindsight.
(I would know about Russia censorship and trying to make themselves look good. If you go onto a BZflag Russian server, type "Russia sucks, communism sucks," they could get in HUGE trouble.)
@Dennis
Im way ahead of you. ;)
I would say..deny Russia the chance to have the iPhone. If they can't behave themselves then why give them access to new tech?.
Yes, I can see how the iPhone would really clinch the deal here.
Do an Apple Arms Deal with Georgia. Georgian pplz get iPhone, haz GPS and google maps access.
Georgian civvies go covert and snap/share photos of Soviet emplacements.
iPhones will have direct secure/encrypted voice data.
Steve Jobs hurry upz.
Nothing in Georgia shows up on Google maps...
America should just bomb them. Then they'll get what they deserved and they won't get iPhone 3G's.
Right, because a nuclear war is exactly what we need right now.
and another idiot talking out of his arse.....wasn't this topic about the iphone 3G, i could've have sworn i'm on a technology site...
Because it's just what US makes best — bomb everyone, right?
and this is news worthy of coverage because...
Can we expect full coverage of the Bold/N96/X1 rollout on a country by country basis?
Well, I guess it gave a few people a chance to get their bellicose jingoism on.
When are you guys going to roll out an iPhone-less RSS feed for engadget.com? I see that TUAW (of all things) has one. Why not here?
Yeah, but no one reads TUAW.
Good point, Eric. I'm certain that advertising agreement in effect here with Apple requires that this website expose users to a certain number of Apple-related articles a day. How would we ever hit the quota if they hid all of the iPhone posts from us? Of course, TUAW doesn't have that problem because they have enough Apple-related posts to go around anyway.
Welcome to 2007
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=eJGx0YQf3BGDYF8lJhOy0Q&_render=rss
If I read one more "in soviet russia..." joke, I'll kill someone. And no, in soviet russia, someone does not kill me -.-
in soviet russia, humor elude you
in soviet russia, phanbouy is the best. and here, too.
if Russia eva goes to war with US you all are done!!! I wanna see how US would freak out if the electricity was cut off for just a day, loool
um, yeah if two superpowers go to war, humanity goes extinct.
your point?
well I can go on about Russia - Georgia crisis for a loong time, but the bottom line is that you guys are being fed the news they want you to believe. When US media is talking about Russian aggression they show videos of Georgian rockets bombing civilians...
Believe what you want, but if Russia was arming and training Cubans in your back yard I bet you wouldn't be too happy about that either, would you?
i'll bet you could. you know, when i want to find out the truth, i only listen to guys who start their arguments with "if Russia eva goes to war with US you all are done!!!"
You just know that they'll love the Apple Kill Switch (Though maybe they're misunderstanding its function)
I lold so hard.
Good this means Russia will also suffer the same 3G connectivity problems as the rest of the world.
let's make fun of the russian government, because the american one is so much better.
i can walk and chew gum at the same time.
See, at least this guy gets it. YOO ESS AYY, YOO ESS AYY, YOO ESS AYY!
I was really starting to miss the Cold War.
Obviously you're not familiar with our prime time night shows cracking jokes at our elected clowns' expense. The American government is not perfect, but we can laugh our asses off and not get arrested for it. Maybe that difference alone makes it a bit better.
Yeah and your leaders can laugh their asses off at the suckers that pay them and give them power, and not get indited, better my ass.
Try putting a picture of bush with his typical monkey face in an art gallery. Try sunbathing topples! (OMG! A nipple! Nipples are worse than Satan!) Try showing a documentary about classic art (roman, greek, etc) on TV without having problems with "dangerous" sexual content! (WTF?) Try breastfeeding a baby in a cafeteria or in the park. Like George Carlin once said: "it's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." Land of the free. Free what. Free shot-gun with your french fries, sir?
Sorry for my rant, but just seeing all these people thinking that the US is the best place in the world to live and hating Russia for doing what our government does best... it just makes me really angry.
Check this video out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc&fmt=18
well, if people that have a culture, education and values go to war against a nation of consumers... who do you think is gonna win?
i think that benthic single-cell organisms at the bottom of the sea will win because they'll be the only life left
p.s. people don't buy things in Russia?
)))))
they do, but thats not the ONLY thing they do.....
Your country doesn't have culture, the government wouldn't allow it. Oh, unless you mean culture in the form of an alphabet full of funny letters.
here's an idea: maybe one can reject blind consumerism, dictatorial power-hungry governments, AND internet teenagers trying to start a war!
Buddy,
Bulgakov, Tolstoi, Nabokov, Chekhov, Blok, Ahmatova, Cvetaeva, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol and Dotoyevsky are only but one layer of a culture. There is one more, much bigger layer of the Russian culture. The culture of alcoholism. The culture of wife-beating. The culture of whining. The culture of screwing someone over and being proud of it. The culture of reckless driving because you have a bigger SUV. The culture that accepts government corruption as given and doesn't do sh#t about it.
The culture where a Minister's son can run over a woman at 250 km/h, kill her and get away with that.
That culture.
So, before you go on with your Nashi propaganda about other people not having culture, take a careful look in the mirror.
And, btw, I'm Russian. Piss off.
Hear is an idea Boarderwoot is a fat pig that spends 22 hrs a day in front of a pc and is in love with his PC and Microwave
@ Artem
Menya tozhe zovut Artem, and im Russian too
All you mentioned - is the culture of Russian life, but to each is own... This is life and you make a choice whether you want to live wild or in a zoo with all amenities....
Whoahoah bear...take it easy. A pc and a microwave at the same time is waaaaay too much lovin for one person to handle. (or so my russian friend told me.) Besides, maybe with the GPS built into the iPhone now you could use it to find the ability to lighten up and poke fun at your own extremely corrupt and oppressive government once in a while.
In other news a bear was found running loose in the streets and happened upon a large group of people. Stunned witnesses report that the bear began to get frustrated, pulled out a machine gun, and begin firing randomly at the crowd.
One onlooker noted that as he fired the animal continued to murmur strange jokes, all of which begin with the words, "In Soviet Russia..."
Shocking.
guys! Stop talking about politics! This news about iPhone!
I'm not from Russia, I'm from Ukraine. And I really hate Russian policy! But iPhone will be used by PEOPLE in Russia (not only Putin and Medvedev). And MTS is also in my country so there is a chance to have an official iPhone here:)
What a great thing for all those trendy teenage types! (says Putin because he secretly understands the fine print of the contract)
TeleSystems iPhone Contract terms (inconjunction with Russian military)
2,500 Rub per year plus 1,000 Rub data package with a 17 year contract and life sentance of service in the KGB
In mother Russia, iPhone browses you.
Dude, you are like 40 posts too late!
i lol'd
@bear...
Plenty of us know that Georgia provoked the conflict with Russia. We've protested our government's stance and railed against the media portrayals. None of that changes the fact that Russia's response was out of proportion to the provocation. But all of that is neither here nor there. Your biggest problem is that this is Engadget, not Foreign Affairs. It's not the place for a debate about international relations.
Now, back to discussing the iPhone and other gadgets.
if countries weren't so preoccupied with seeming to have "power" (US, russia im looking at you here), the world would be a much safer place. Frankly I have much greater respect for countries like france and germany who would rather solve issues with diplomacy
Great you are. It's so good to read one clever comment there.
@ e2_98
Dude, LOL, Germany! Great choice!! And yes, of course it was Russians, who started WWII ! And poor German soldiers just defended their cool and diplomatic country from aggressors! But stop...in this case - what US troops were doing at the omah beach? Against who they were fighting...?
The only thing I wanna say: If you take a history of any country - there are a lot of things to shame for. Of ANY country. I really don't like what is going on in my own country, but I don't like what's happening in US. Right now I'm in Canada and I do see some very unpleasant staff from here... Our governments are very different, but basically they are using the same technologies to control their people, mainly through TV. And a lot of folks are concerned about in Russia and in US... You could just listen to Adam Curry's DSC :)
@ just another Russian guy
Lol you've just proved my point exactly, why did Hitler invade Poland? More power for himself
Besides we're talking about modern day politics not what happened 60 years ago, and last time I checked the Germans aren't looking for ww3
Just in time for their attempt at world domination!
It's the иФон, comrades! Will the 16GB version come in red?
Hallo? Mama?....yez! Itss me, Yuri! Yess, I'm callink you on thee noo iPutin!....No, mama, only thee imperialist western pigs (ppphhhtt) call it iphone......No, mama, Ukraine! I'm in thee Ukraine! Georgia wass lasst month! Get with thee pogrom...er, program!
OK, mama, I haff to go now...I need to find out iff I need thee roaming minutes for Poland!
Dosvidanja!
+1
Hey guys, it`s interesting to read all your comments here. I do know that Russia is a fu*ked up place with a fu*cked up government and a lot of fu*cked up people who pray for this government. But look at Mr. Bush... And the media is biased on bith sides in regards to the Ru-Ge Conflict, however, it is independent in the western countries. I`m just surprised that american (???) teenagers have the same hatred towards Russia as do russian teenagers towards the U.S.
Let`s just chill out on both sides.
BTW, Russia is the 3rd greatest iphone market in the world, after the U.S. and China. Until Sept 26th this has and will be done illegally, by bying this thing for 300$ in the U.S. and selling it for around 600-800$ here.
In colonial Georgia, iPhone drives tanks for you and give a sweet headshots into civillian womens and children's brains. Oh, and it cross over many times on their dead bodies.
Bloody Hell, bless the America! I LOVE NATO!!!
La-la-la la-la-la!
La-la-la la-la-la!
This is like a 2 for 1 deal! Russia gets the iPhone and by consequence so does Georgia!