The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor has suspended deliveries to Russia, Vedomosti writes , citing sources in one of the electronics distributors and in the telecom market. According to the interlocutors of the publication, the supply stopped in March. At the same time, Honor did not make official statements about leaving the Russian market.
According to the newspaper, the company is now looking for partners in Armenia, Georgia and has already reached an agreement in Uzbekistan to import smartphones to Russia using parallel imports.
Smartphone maker Honor was formerly owned by Huawei. On June 8, it became known that Huawei also began to close stores in Russia. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to a source close to the company. According to the source, the main reason for the closure is the shortage of products in warehouses, as well as a decrease in demand for smartphones. The interlocutor added that Huawei will continue to close its stores in the coming months.
Of the 19 official stores operating in Russia before the start of the war, four outlets located in Moscow, Novokuznetsk, Ufa and Rostov-on-Don have already closed.
At the same time, a source told RBC that the company does not have its own stores in Russia. According to him, this is a business of partners who have decided to close some of the outlets. The reason is the lack of goods, which made it unprofitable to maintain stores.
Since the end of March, Huawei has sent part of the employees of the Moscow office to remote work and stopped entering into new contracts for the supply of gadgets, as well as network equipment to Russian operators, Izvestia reported . Sources of the publication linked the freeze on the clearance of deliveries with US sanctions against Russia. As one of the interlocutors noted, the ban on American technologies concerns not only the equipment in which they are used, but also the infrastructure for its production.
On June 23, it became known that the Svyaznoy electronics store announced the start of a “parallel import” of gadgets from foreign manufacturers. We are talking about Samsung smartphones and watches, the latest line of iPhones and PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo game consoles.
“Parallel import” is the term used to describe the import of goods into the country without the official permission of the right holder, carried out “in parallel” with official deliveries. After the imposition of sanctions, the official supply of many goods ceased, but the Russian press continues to refer to imports without the permission of the copyright holder as "parallel", even if this channel for the import of goods remained the only one.
As Svyaznoy's representative told Kommersant, some of the imported devices will be 10-20% more expensive than those imported into Russia before the start of the war. These stocks will last another 2-3 months.