Mirror, Mirror on the wall ; who gobbles up the iPhones of them all? It could be any country of the several at which the iPhone 3G debuted globally except for ones as Russia and China where the iPhone is not supposed to be available. After all , Apple has not been able to reach any conclusive agreements with mobile service providers in these countries.

But that hasnt stopped the Russian president from getting one. Nor has it stopped the scores of Chinese and Russian citizens who want one no matter what the cost.

Moscow and Beijing have become an iPhone trader's paradise. Russian Web sites were offering the new 3G iPhone for about $1,200, six times the $199 base price in the U.S. iPhones are being brought into the country (Russia) completely filling up suitcases and each of them is being sold out for a premium.

Estimates are that 400,000 iPhones have been brought into Russia since the first model was released in June 2007. Online auction sites in mainland China, such as taobao.com, were offering the new 16-gigabyte model the day of its release for $1,370.

So the next time you are left wondering why the Apple store is still sold out of iPhones, you know exactly where to place the blame.

Source