“Russians, who for years endured some of the highest prices for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, can buy the latest model for less than what shoppers pay elsewhere in Europe,” Ilya Khrennikov and Jake Rudnitsky report for Bloomberg.
“Russians have often been found in queues outside Apple stores in London and Frankfurt during product debuts. Now, thanks to the ruble’s decline in recent months, iPhone prices in Russia are the lowest in Europe when measured in dollars or euros, according to Russian handset retailer Svyaznoy,” Khennikov and Rudnitsky report. “In ruble terms the sticker price hasn’t changed. An iPhone 6 without a carrier contract starts at 31,990 rubles ($701), relatively high for many Russians. However, after the ruble’s 25 percent slide against the dollar and 18 percent drop against the euro in the past four months, the Russian price has dropped below that of other countries. In neighboring Finland, long a popular destination for Russian iPhone shoppers, the iPhone 6 costs local shoppers about 700 euros ($870).”
“Russian prices still don’t beat the U.S., where the iPhone 6 without a carrier contract starts at about $650 before taxes. The ruble is falling amid U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s alleged role in the Ukraine conflict and a drop in the price of oil,” Khennikov and Rudnitsky report. “iPhone purchases by Russians have also increased in recent weeks, said Maria Zaikina, a spokeswoman for Moscow-based Svyaznoy, which accounted for two-fifths of Russia’s iPhone sales last year.”
Read more in the full article here.
I thought the Russkies outlawed Apple products because of Tim Cook. What is this all about?
This was just stupid rumour; it will never happen.
Apple headlines without the political wackos: http://machash.com
Go and don’t look back.
It is also rumored that Putin is in line for his iPhone 6 !!!
It is also rumoured that Putin is fast shaping up to become Europe’s new Hitler.
I think you meant to write Europe’s new Stalin.
Stalin was every bit as evil as Hitler, but not batshit crazy about blaming the worldwide depression of the 1930’s on a handful of ethnic and religious groups. Stalin just wanted to assimilate as much land as he could. Putin’s role model for sure.
“Stalin was every bit as evil as Hitler”
Not even remotely as evil. Stalin was internationalist (Georgian himself), which is totally opposite of Hitler. Stalin was also against state-corporation merge, which is fascism, he was socialist.
Finally, the confirmed number of victims of Stalin terror policies is about 1 million people directly, and about 2.5 million people indirectly (died in the GULAG camps due to bad conditions, and because of horrible conditions during many deportations). It is not 10, 20, 30 or 40 million as propaganda has spread through — nearly 4 million is incredible evil, but you have to measure the scale properly.
Despite all the propaganda about this issue, historically and factually accurate Stalin is not even in top three of the worst bloody dictators of 20th Century. Far behind others, let alone Hitler.
Actually, Putin fights (though very slightly, not really trying) against illegal neo-Nazi-driven regime in Ukraine (with glossy corrupt oligarch figureheads), so you confuse the side Hitler is on.
But… didn’t the analysts say that no one in Russia can afford an iPhone and they’re all going to be buying Android smartphones because they’re just as good at half the price. Analysts are always pumping FUD at investors to help them lose money.