Sipping my coffee here in a Real Canadian Marriott—lovely people, the Mariotts—I noticed this little blip in the Globe & Mail about smuggled iPhones in Russia, where the unlocked phones have become such a status symbol that even the President-elect is reported to use one. Now that's a country that is comfortable with grey market imports.

That popularity has turned into a bonanza for traders who sell the phones in kiosks and on the Internet for $1,000 (U.S.) each, more than twice the U.S. price. Hackers say they charge as much as 2,500 rubles ($106) to "unlock" them so they work locally. "It's an icon for Russians," said Timofei Kulikov, a lawyer and buyer of electronic products for X5 Retail Group NV, Russia's largest supermarket chain. "If you see two businessmen at lunch in Moscow, they'll both have iPhones on the table."

Russia's iPhone affair: Smuggle, unlock, talk [TheGlobeAndMail.com]