Monday, August 25, 2008 -- 11:39 p.m. -- at my desk

3.5 million iPhones sold in Russia over the next 2 years.

OK, makes sense, right? We already know how hot the iPhone has been on the black market over there, so why not a lofty goal like that?

Ummm, maybe because the average sale price for an iPhone in Russia is expected to be $24,000 roubles? That's $990 in American dollars.

And that, callers, is a LOT of money.

Now keep in mind, these numbers aren't Apple's estimates. They are simply market sources who spoke with Reuters. But will that many people spend that much money on an iPhone? Apparently, according to these market sources ... the must-have status symbol that's making its march around the world isn't going to skip over Russia.

Here's a link to the complete article. Very interesting reading.

What do you think? Any Russian callers out there who can shed some light on spending that much for an iPhone. Apparently, the market sources aren't even concerned about the black market. Fascinating.

Thanks for calling.

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How can that many people afford to spend that kind of money- must be even more oil money made over there right now than I thought. If I were them, I'd at least make sure the software update fixes the problems before I jumped in, especially at those prices! Pretty amazing.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Seriously, they should get Steve's home number if they pay that much.

And I thought that the Italian price (€569 for a 16GB model, about $830) was crazy... :-(

SCOTT'S REPLY: Oh it still is.

I may have misunderstood Steve's speech at the WDC, but wasn't the new iPhone supposed to cost US$199 everywhere?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Well, I think I misunderstood it too ... because I came away with the same thoughts, except I understood it as no more than $299 American equivalent.

Hi-first time to your blog. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Converted to iPhone when my treo became hopelessly incompatible w/Leopard. Desperately miss the ability to make/manipulate on both platforms/easily sync memos and to dos between my iPhone and MacBook. Found a work around using Notes in Mail (created a folder in MobileMe called 'Notes' w/sub-folders, and filed all the necessary memos there), but it's many more steps than the treo required. I'm still trying to get friendly w/Evernote...but it's pretty useless if I'm in the subway and can't access the net. Any input/suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks

SCOTT'S REPLY: Hi, Competra ... the whole to-do experience is one of the most complained about ... the 3rd party offerings are certainly the best. I haven't found a really strong wireless component -- one that doesn't require syncing -- although that Plum Record that I mentioned a few entries back offers a way to send memos to a server and therefore wirelessly to your computer. Because I don't dabble too much in to-dos and memos, I don't know as well as I should, but if you haven't checked out Plum Record, I think it's worthwhile to make sure that functionality isn't for you.

Let me know what you think ... I'd be happy to do a little more investigating for something specific for you if you'd like.

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