Friday, August 29, 2008

Weird rumor-- Bite to sell iPhone in Latvia?!

I just heard the weirdest rumor for someone who is not a crackpot and has some contacts in the business, namely:

Starting Monday, September 1, Bite Latvia (of the Lithuania-based Bite Group) will start selling the iPhone3G in Latvia at various tariff plans and prices ranging from 400 to up to 600 LVL (both very pricey).

Theories: Vodafone, which has close ties with Bite, has influenced TeliaSonera (in charge of the iPhone business in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries) to let another operator distribute the innovative gadget. This also explains why LMT, the biggest mobile operator effectively controlled by the Swedes failed to launch the iPhone 3G on August 22, as was expected.

This, of course, could all be just Friday afternoon craziness...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this is rumour. I cannot imagine LMT [or teliasonera] negotiating deal like that. That would be suicide to give away iphone to Bite, something like in middle ages farmers had to give away their first night rights to their masters…

To cheer up those who had heart attack :) I have another rumour, that LMT has iphone release date set and is preparing marketing materials, rates etc.

Anonymous said...

well somebody better start selling it soon here!

Tim Burnett said...

Hi,

This is going to sound like an odd question but I'm a PhD researcher studying exclusivity agreements. Do you know roughly what date Bite did actually start selling the iPhone? I'm really struggling to find any information.

Thanks,

Tim

Juris Kaža said...

Tim,
As far as I know, they never did officially start selling iPhones, but if you ask them, the can probably get you a grey market phone.