In Russia, sales of new smartphones in the second quarter of 2022 fell to a minimum over the past 5-10 years due to a decrease in real incomes of Russians and an increase in the price of gadgets. Vedomosti writes about this with reference to the press service of Beeline, a representative of Tele2 and interviewed analysts.
A source close to one of the operators called quarterly sales of new smartphones "the lowest in a decade." In rubles, this figure fell "to the level of the pandemic 2020."
This year, about 5.7 million new smartphones and conventional cell phones were sold in Russia for a total of 105 billion rubles. MTS analysts claim that sales of smartphones in Russia fell by 30% in units and rubles compared to the same period in 2021.
The MegaFon network also confirmed the fall: Sales Director David Borzilov said that sales of smartphones in units decreased by 17% compared to the indicators of the II quarter of last year. Tele2 fixes a decrease in sales of new smartphones by 23% in units and by 12% in rubles. A spokesman for the company explained that the record lows were due to economic factors that overlapped this year and only partly to seasonal demand. At the same time, demand for Apple and Samsung is falling, while for Xiaomi and Realme, on the contrary, it is growing.
Analysts attribute the decline in demand for smartphones to a decrease in real incomes of the population and an increase in the cost of technology. The head of the Content Review agency, Sergey Polovnikov, noted that now purchasing power, geopolitics and fear for the future do not contribute to buying an iPhone for more than 100 thousand rubles. In addition, in stores, despite parallel imports, the assortment of gadgets has decreased, Denis Kuskov, founder of the Telecom Daily agency, emphasizes. According to him, this led to the growth of the market for used devices – this segment has grown by at least 50% since the beginning of the year.
Earlier, Rostec had difficulties with the development of a smartphone on a domestic processor due to the refusal of the Taiwanese factory TSMC to work with Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine. The problem is related to the fact that the Skif processors for the smartphone were produced at TSMC. At the same time, the Scythians from the Elvis research and production center overheat during the operation of the smartphone, which complicated further development.
At the end of June, the Chinese manufacturer of smartphones Honor suspended deliveries to Russia, while Honor did not make any official statements about leaving the Russian market. Despite the termination of deliveries, Russia imports goods under "parallel imports". However, some Samsung smartphones imported in this way turned out to be impossible to activate in the country.