Russia met the new iPhones coldly, what to expect next?

Today at midnight in Russia, the latest line of iPhone devices officially introduced by Apple exactly a month ago – on September 9 – went on sale.

Despite the promptness of the appearance of white devices in Russian retail, the demand for them turned out to be lower than the same one a year earlier, Vedomosti writes.

According to Mail.Ru Group, “less than 1,000 official iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were sold overnight.” Considering that about 70 thousand devices were sold over the weekend a year ago, the current sales are a failure, says Anton Spiridonov, head of strategic Communications Hi-Tech Mail.Ru .

This is not surprising, given that a year ago the price of the device started at 31,990 rubles, and today – from 56,990 rubles. However, retailers of Apple products in Russia, in whose stores new gadgets appeared that night, deny a decrease in interest as part of official comments.

But, as Vedomosti writes, unofficially, company employees admit that the number of pre-orders this year turned out to be much less than in the past. In his Twitter feed, Eldar Murtazin, the editor-in-chief of Mobile-Review, also actively wrote about this.

But as the CEO of Telecom Daily Denis Kuskov notes, all smartphone manufacturers are in a similar situation – the lack of sales growth.

Moreover, we recall that according to the results of the second quarter of 2015, the Russian tablet market earned 49% less than in the same period last year.

It was hardly worth waiting for good sales of high-tech imported devices in a country that recently experienced a “currency shock” that occurred against the background of the withdrawal of investment capital and sanctions.

Plus, it should be understood that Russians have finally got used to the idea that there is no shortage of Apple products in their home market. If three years ago the last generation of the device officially appeared in Russian retail months after the start of sales in the States, then starting with the sales of the iPhone 5S, the time window was reduced to a month.

But, of course, first of all, I am interested in whether the decline in sales of the latest generation of iPhones will significantly affect Russian sales of mobile games?

It seems to us that a recession is definitely not worth waiting for, because, as is well known, during a crisis, sales of affordable entertainment products of good quality are growing. It’s just that, perhaps, we should expect a slight reduction in the growth rate of mobile games profits due to a reduction in sales of mobile devices, which, we note, occurred not only due to external economic (for the market) reasons, but also partly due to the saturation of the market with similar devices.

You will be able to learn about the latest trends in the gaming industry first-hand, personally meet and discuss working issues with leading companies in the game development and publishing market at White Nights Moscow 2015, which will be held on October 13-14.