Although dollar to ruble exchange rate hasn’t changed much in the last few weeks. iPhone prices in Russia continued to fall. At first, interestingly, large retail chains like Svyaznoy, M.Video and Eldorado decided to lower their prices. But private traders also did not keep themselves waiting and responded with an even greater decline. As a result, buying from serovars, which are now commonly called parallel importers, turned out to be even more profitable. Let’s figure out how much iPhone prices have fallen, compare them with official retail and try to understand what is the reason for such a strong drop.
In fact the reasons that provoked iPhone price cuts in Russia, at least three. Firstly, this is the imminent release of the iPhone 14, which means that the remnants of older smartphones need to be drained as quickly as possible, because then they will fall in price even more. Secondly, importers managed to reduce the costs of parallel imports, which made it cheaper to import devices from abroad. Well, and, thirdly, the euro has fallen in price against the ruble even more than the dollar, and the main flow of equipment is still coming from Europe.
iPhone prices in Russia
Here are some examples of how much do iphones cost in russia as of early September. We present the minimum prices available on Yandex.Market. At the same time, it is possible that for individual sellers who are not represented on the site, Apple smartphones may cost even less.
Now compare gray iPhone prices (although with the permission of parallel imports, such a concept has basically ceased to exist) with those established by large retail chains. For example, let’s take Eldorado, M.Video, Svyaznoy and DNS as stores with some of the most profitable offers in the official segment:
- iPhone SE 2022 64 GB – 37,990 rubles;
- iPhone 11 64 GB – 53,990 rubles;
- iPhone 12 64 GB – 70,990 rubles;
- iPhone 12 Pro 128 GB – 92,999 rubles;
- iPhone 13 mini 128 GB – 69,999 rubles;
- iPhone 13 128 GB – 79,990 rubles;
- iPhone 13 Pro 128 GB – 110,090 rubles;
- iPhone 13 Pro Max for 128 GB – 119,990 rubles;
- iPhone 13 Pro Max for 1 TB – 179,990 rubles.
As you can see, the difference is often up to 50%. However, from the point of view of the end user buy iphone Officials don’t make any sense. Not only do you overpay a very impressive amount, but you also do not receive any privileges. Gray iPhone Warranty according to Russian laws, in both cases it is provided by the seller. Unless in large networks you can take a phone on credit for up to 24 months, while small private traders do not have such an opportunity.
Are foreign devices serviced in Apple Authorized Service Centers in Russia? Well, practice shows that workshops make exceptions from time to time. Moreover, this probability is highest for devices imported from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Community: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. From there, you can really bring an iPhone with profit.
For which country iPhone – how to find out
For example, the iPhone 13 in the basic configuration in Kazakh electronics stores costs around 400 thousand tenge. In terms of rubles, this is about 50 thousand rubles. So, if you find one, take it better. Often sellers themselves indicate country from which the iPhone was imported, and if not, you can find out yourself by the model number of the smartphone. It is indicated in the “About the device” section and on the packaging of the device.
Here’s how to find it in the firmware of the device itself:
- Open the Settings app on iPhone;
- Go to the “Basic” tab;
- Here select “About this device”;
- Pay attention to the line “Model Number”.
The model number is XXXXX(YY)/A, where YY is the country of origin, represented by two letters. iPhones from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union have several markings that allow you to accurately identify them:
Such devices will still be repaired at authorized service centers, regardless of where you buy them. But in the service of Arabic, Japanese, American, Canadian and other models, you may be denied. In this case, we recommend contacting our friends from Apple Pro. The guys will spend Repair iPhone and other Apple equipment of any complexity, while their prices are significantly lower than in official workshops.
