Russian retailers sold 120,000 iPhone 4 units over the last three months, according to Kommersant, a Russian business daily. This comes in addition to significant unofficial sales via “grey import” channels.
Although modest in comparison to the iPhone’s triumphant worldwide sales performance, 16.2 million in Q4 2010, these results mark significant progress for Apple on the Russian market. Last year, it took six months for iPhone 3GS sales to reach the 100,000 mark. In 2009, things were even worse: according to Russian business daily Vedomosti, MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator and retailer, sold just 115,000 iPhones that year, a mere 23% of planned sales.
The iPhone 4’s enhanced design and functions are not the only reason for the phone’s better sales performance in relation to earlier models. Official sales in Russia started in late September, 2010, about 3 months after the handset’s release in western countries, which provided a smaller window to organize grey import channels. By contrast, the first iPhone’s official sales were launched in Russia only in late 2008, almost a year after its debut in the US.
Ranging from 34,900 to 39,900 rubles ($1,163 to $1,330), the price of the iPhone 4 is even higher than for previous versions (29,900 to 34,900 rubles, or $997 to $1,163). In the absence of operator subsidies, this makes the iPhone an elite product on the local market and might do much to explain its poor sales record.
Update April 19, 2011
Russian mobile retailers cut down iPhone 4 prices over sour demand, RIA Novosti reported. “iPhone 4 prices have been reduced on average 3,000 rubles ($100) because of the changing marketing environment,” said a spokesperson of MTS.
A source close to the iPhone supplies to Russia said that Apple, which controls the prices of its gadgets all over the world, cut off the price because of the forthcoming vacation season, when the demand is traditionally low.
Moreover, it is getting harder to sell iPhone 4 ahead of the sales of iPhone 5, which scheduled to go appear in stores in autumn, the source said.
