Apple’s tremendously successful product, the iPhone, still has to conquer two more markets. These two are in many aspects the biggest in the world – Russia and China. It is unknown at the moment which mobile operator will launch the iPhone in each country but its availability will come fast.

China Mobile, the largest mobile phone operator in China, recently said that in February there should have been around 400,000 iPhones used in the country. The devices are reported to be ‘first-generation’. In any case, once the release in this country, iPhone sales may not be as high as in other parts of the world. In fact, the Chinese are not very keen to buy the iPhone and Apple may not sell 13,000 devices per second.

Paradoxically, one thing is sure, the Apple’s iPhone will sell in massive number and there is nothing any other mobile phone manufacturer can do about it.

In Russia, the mobile phone industry may be more evolved. The iPhone black market is already having a successful activity. People can purchase an 8GB iPhone for $1,200 and pay a hundred more for a 16GB, $1,370 exactly. In Russia there may be even as much as 800,000 iPhone users already and their number is expected to grow substantially until the official introduction of the iPhone.

There are of course a series of risks for purchasing an iPhone from the Russian or Chinese black market. First of all it may not function properly. Second you can loose it with the next update made by Apple and third you may pay a lot of money to no avail.