Why Russians rarely buy iPhones and iPads?

On September 17, sales of Apple's iPhone smartphones in Russia have almost come to a standstill, which may be attributed to economic sanctions.

Data released by market research firm IDC shows that since iPhone sales in Russia doubled last year, Apple's smartphone sales in Russia fell by about 0.3 percentage points last quarter. At the same time, the iPad's position in Russia has dropped to fourth, behind Lenovo, Asus and Samsung.

The slowdown in Apple product sales in Russia is related to the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe this year on Russia for interfering in the situation in Ukraine. But this is neither due to Russian patriotism nor the iPhone ban imposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the contrary, many of Putin's important aides, including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, are loyal fans of Apple products, and Russian companies even provide gold and rare metals for Apple production.

The reality is that economic sanctions from the United States and Europe have hurt the Russian economy and also caused the Russian currency to depreciate against the US dollar and the euro. Local Russian consumers now lack confidence in their future and prefer to buy cheaper products. Market research firm IDC said that in the current Russian macroeconomic environment, tablet sales are also declining, and high-end consumer electronics brands are hit the hardest. Apple is not the only company affected. South Korea's Samsung smartphone sales in Russia are also declining, with sales last quarter falling by more than half compared to the same period last year.

But for cheap brands, the Russians' bad luck is good news, especially for mobile phone manufacturers like Lenovo in China. According to data released by market research firm IDC, Lenovo's share of the Russian smartphone market has increased to 8.6% last quarter, and it has become the most popular tablet brand in Russia. In the second quarter of this year, Lenovo accounted for 14% of the tablet shipments to Russia, while Samsung and Apple's shipments were almost halved. Samsung and Apple have not yet responded to this.

"Russians care more about price and technical features than brand," said Gleb Mishin, Lenovo's vice president in Russia. "Except for Russian customers, I don't know if other customers care what processor is installed in their mobile phones." Lenovo sells smartphones under its parent company's brand in China, Russia and other emerging markets, and now plans to sell phones under the Motorola name in the United States and Western Europe. Lenovo bought Motorola from Google this year.

Last quarter, other lesser-known electronics brands had similar sales situations in Russia as Lenovo, such as China's TCL's market share increase in Russia, and cheap Android phones made by Fly, a smart device brand registered in the UK, have become the best-selling smartphones in Russia. Even Nokia, a subsidiary of Microsoft, has achieved considerable results in Russia and is now closely competing with Apple for the third place.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.