You’re probably reading this and wondering what we care about either Russia, or the iPhone. Well, for those of you that think Russia is still the communist nation it was in the mid-to-late 20th Century, then you ought to take a closer look, it’s a wonderful country. Now, on to the whole issue of why we’re writing a post about Russia’s Wireless Industry, well, it’s another case of Samsung furthering their seemingly endless world domination. You see, in Russia, the iPhone is popular, of course it doesn’t receive the same level of popularity as it does over here, or elsewhere in the world but, it’s still popular. Things are about to get a lot harder for Apple to sell their iPhones though, as yet another carrier has ditched the smartphone from their line-up.
As Hi-Tech is reporting, Beeline, the last carrier that was selling the iPhone has now given up on Apple’s smartphone. In fact, they’ve gone and signed a deal with Samsung, because they offered more favorable terms. Now, this all comes down to business but, there was a time when you’d just put up with Apple’s terms to sell the incredibly popular iPhone. Those times seem to be gone for Russia. Now, none of the three major carriers in Russia sell the iPhone, what they do sell however, is a lot of Samsung devices.
Russians will still be able to buy the iPhone of course, as it’s still sold in the Svyaznoy line of stores and Apple themselves are setting up stores there, with a heavy focus on online retail. This is by no means the end of the iPhone in Russia but, it’s certainly a sign that they can’t hope to conquer Samsung there.
Hi-Tech are reporting that ” Apple’s conditions are harsh, especially in the marketing department, and are not always beneficial for its partners”. This, we can believe, and it looks like Apple is unwilling to change how they treat the wireless industry, globally. If you don’t like the 24-month contract cycle and $199 upfront, you only have Apple to blame. Release a truly new product once every two years, and a revamp every year, just gives the carriers the ammo they need to keep on charging, without any changes to how they do things.