Apple will review its sales strategy in Russia

While everyone expects that on September 10, Apple will introduce two new iPhone models, several top managers of the company will come to Russia this week to meet with key distributors, reports TechCrunch.

According to the publication, this meeting is a sign that one of the new devices will indeed be a cheaper iPhone, and Russia will be one of the key markets for it, where before that Apple had encountered difficulties in working with operators and where there is a large gray market, and official distributors cannot meet all demand.

Tim Cook, reporting in July to investors, noted this high demand, which exists despite the price: “If you look at the Russian market, more than 80% of the phones are sold in retail networks outside the shops of operators. In the last quarter, more of our devices were activated in Russia than ever before. ”
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Currently, Apple is working directly with one distributor - the Svyaznoy retail chain, which also acts as a distributor for other retail chains. According to the latter, Svyaznoy uses its position and either does not supply them with an iPhone at all, or delivers them in minimal quantities. According to the results of the meeting with Apple this week, other retailers may receive equal rights with Svyaznoy.

Update: Svyaznoy has sent a comment that is not a distributor of Apple products; they sell gadgets to end customers, that is, they act like a retailer. They have a direct contract for the supply of iPhone, and they sell it through their retail network (3,360 stores) and an online store. “There is a separate project concerning the development of the network of Apple Premium Reseller mono-brand stores under the CStore brand (now we have 8 of them in 7 cities: Novosibirsk, Kazan, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Samara),” commented the representative of the company Svyaznoy ".

In Russia, you can now buy an iPhone 5 16 GB in Svyaznoy for 27,990 rubles ($ 849), whereas in the UK it costs $ 823 (529 pounds), and in the United States it costs $ 649. The publication notes that this is all the more striking when you consider that the average consumer in Russia earns much less than in these other countries.

If Apple launches a low-cost device, then one shot will kill two birds with one stone in emerging markets - in particular in Russia, which is the largest Internet market in Europe and one of the fastest growing in mobile use. Apple can finally meet all demand by setting a price that is not low (because it is Apple), but more acceptable to most users.

Recent years, Apple has managed to attract users, despite the high prices, but recent data show that Android is becoming an increasing threat. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple’s global market share declined by three percent to 13.6% over the year, despite the fact that the overall smartphone market grew by 47%, and smartphones have already surpassed regular phones in sales.