I’m actually really interested in getting my hands on that first Nokia touchscreen phone but in the mean time, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will hit Russia first. The phone will be available starting December 5th and it will cost about $550. That’s an odd decision from Nokia. I mean sure Russia is big and it will get them lots of customers but what about the rest of the world? When are we going to get it? I demand answers!

After we’ve seen the iPhone ready for Russia, it’s not such a big surprise the Ukrainian release. The iPhone is rumored to arrive the night between October 2nd and October 3rd with MTS as the carrier selling it.

The Russian neighbors will see the iPhone arriving form MTS, MegaFon and Vimplecom. Apple managed to get a foothold on these markets and we’re likely to see lots of iPhones sold in Russia and the Ukraine in the following months.

We don’t have any details about special pricing and plans for Ukraine but we’ll keep you updated as soon as we have received them.

We’ve come a long way since we have first started talking about the iPhone 3G in Russia. Local carriers are ready to sell Apple’s device and, according to Reuters, the actual sales will start on October 3rd.

All major carriers will have iPhone offers for their subscribers. MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon will all have the same pricing offers. The 8GB will sell for about $924 while the 16GB will cost $1,084 without a plan. We’ll be waiting for detailed plan offers.

The Russian carrier VimpelCom has announced the launch of its 3G network in four cities. These are Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgoro, Samara and Chelyabinsk. Besides the launch of the new 3G network, VimpelCom has seven new plans ready for broadband Internet access.

Diana Samoshkina from VimpelCom said:

Our 3G product is targeting not so much mobile subscribers as residential Internet users who will be able to access the web via our GSM/UMTS USB modems which work both in 3G and 2G networks.

By the end of the year VimpelCom plans to launch 3G networks in 40 cities. Are they getting ready for any phone in particular?

Come on Russia already, take the damn Apple phone! We’re tired of seeing leaked news and hear from dependable sources details about the official iPhone appearance in Russia. (more…)

Apple seems confident it will sell about 3.5 million iPhones in Russia and it has finally reached an agreement with Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest carrier to sell the handset starting October. According to previous rumors we were expecting the iPhone 3G to enter the Russian market only in 2009.

Besides MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon are also considered by Apple to sell the iPhone. Currently more than 600,000 iPhones are being used unofficially in Russia and more are going to be sold by the time Apple will start to ship handsets to the country.

Russian carriers are expected to buy the iPhone for $399 from Apple and sell it for about $990. Quite a price! Not the usual affordable price Apple has been promoting but cheaper than any unlocked iPhone brought over from abroad.

A couple of weeks ago we were telling you how Russia is more likely to get the official iPhone 3G sometime in 2009. Nothing spectacular about that. Russians are busy with the Georgian conflict anyhow right now.t

If we are to believe recent rumors, two carriers are already in deep negotiation with Apple in order to get the iPhone deal. OAO VimpelCom and OAO MegaFon which are Russia’s second and third biggest mobile opperators are the companies we are talking about. Apple wants to deploy between 1 and 1.5 million iPhones to be deployed with each of them according to undisclosed sources from both companies.

The Samsung Omnia, a veritable iPhone 3G competitor has started to come out around the world. While the iPhone hasn’t been officially launched in Russia yet, the Omnia is going to be sold on the Russian market. Samsung has started shipments of a WiTu device to Russia. But the WiTu is none other than the Omnia.

Besides the regular features it will have custom made widgets for the Russian market. Local sports and news will be fairly available. a Russian-English and a English-Russian will be apparently available. So if in Russia and in need of a WiTu, check out mobile operators for pricing and availability. From September 1st to November 30th it is said that all new buyers will have free Internet access on their new WiTu.

Hey, Great news!! Samsung L770 is now available in Russia. Bearing Classic design the L770 model is perfect for those who need a simple cell phone with music capabilities. You can get this slider cell phone at a price of 7990 Roubles or about $330. It is available in four colors: black, silver, gold and pink. Weighing just 93 grams, Samsung L770 supports Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMPS/HSDPA radios. It features QVGA display, 2 MP camera with flash, VGA camera for video calls, FM radio, Music player, Bluetooth and microSD memory slot.

We’ve been waiting to see when Russia and China were going to pick up the iPhone 3G. It seems that Russia is going to get the iPhone in 2009. Officially that is, as there are almost half a million unlocked iPhones already there.
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The dual-SIM D780 also known as the P240 in some regions has gotten a golden facelift just in time to join the Russians as their official cell phone for the upcoming Olympics 2008 in China. Along with the capability of working with two SIMs at the same time, the Samsung D780 also has a 2.1-inch 262k color QVGA display, a 2-megapixel camera, FM radio, and triband GSM support. This limited edition will also boast of USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with a good-sized 1200mAh battery.

There is no info on pricing yet, but the Samsung D780 DuoS will start shipping around August when the Olympic Games are scheduled to kick off in Beijing.

Let’s see, we were told at the WWDC that the iPhone is coming by the end of the year in about 70 countries with more to be added up. Simultaneous launch of the 3G iPhone is going to occur on July 11th in about 22 countries. But what happens to Russia and China, two really big countries with lots of potential subscribers interested in smuggling buying the device.
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As a followup to the much likable P6 we talked about last year, the P7 has several improvements but also stays a step behind when it comes to innovation. While its a good thing that the processor is bumped to Marvell PXA270 416 MHz from the 300 MHz found on the P6 with more real estate added in the form of a 2.8 inch touchscreen, it is sad to see that this lovely-looking cell phone is content with just GPRS/EDGE data support with no 3G. Otherwise, the specs are decent enough with WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, miniUSB, microSD, and a 2-megapixel camera, all running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional.

No price or availability accompanies these details, but we would expect this to land in Russia or thereabouts in the not so distant future.