iPhone sells poorly in Russia

Russian mobile operators risk disrupting sales plans for iPhone 3G. From the very beginning, they promised to sell 3.5 million handsets in three years, and in fact, in the first three months of sales, they sold a maximum of 120,000-180,000 devices, Vedomosti reports.

Total, according to Mobile Research Group (MRG), for the IV quarter. In 2008, 89 thousand iPhone 3G handsets were sold in Russia. However, representatives of mobile operators consider the MRG estimate to be lowered and they themselves call the numbers one and a half to two times higher. But even this is not enough, especially when compared with the volume of world sales (see table). The reasons are clear, because it is much more profitable to buy an iPhone abroad and here to unlock it. According to some estimates, up to half a million “gray” iPhone devices work in Russia.

The saddest thing is that the Russian operators have pledged to buy huge volumes of iPhones from Apple. For example, VimpelCom should purchase 1.5 million within two years. MTS - 1 million over three years, and Megafon - 1 million over two years.
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Thus, to avoid losses and reach the planned volumes, operators will have to introduce big discounts and start selling iPhone 3G at a price close to the cost price.