Apple has seen the market share of its smartphone in Russia nearly halve year-on-year by number of units sold, as the collapse of the ruble drove up prices, according to a recent report by German market researcher GfK cited by Vedomosti and The Moscow Times.
However, Apple lowered the prices of its smartphones by up to 10% in April, Vedomosti reported. As of June 5 the most basic model of the iPhone 6 cost 45,990 rubles (approximately $820 at the current exchange rate).
Market leader Samsung also saw its share by units sold fall — from 19.3% to 17.9%.
Russians bought 27 million smartphones in 2014, up 46% from the previous year, IDC reported. Apple doubled its sales to 3.25 million units sold, still lagging behind Samsung (6.05 million) but ahead of Lenovo (2.22 million) and Nokia (1.79 million).
iPad sales also plummeted in the first quarter of this year, RBC and The Moscow Times reported last week, citing an IDC report. Apple’s market share dropped from 16.7% to 4.4% in a market totaling some 1 million units, coming in at 7th place in the tablet market.
IDC blamed the drop on Russia’s economic crisis, which it said has forced customers to either abandon plans to buy Apple’s pricey tablet or else find cheaper alternatives, as Samsung and Asus devices are priced significantly cheaper than Apple’s iPad. “The fall in real incomes has led to reduced purchasing power and the consumer has moved into savings mode,” IDC analyst Natalya Vinogradova was quoted by RBC as saying.
As the Russian economy was moving toward recession, IDC found that tablet manufacturers shipped 39.5% fewer tablets to Russia in the first quarter of this year.
