“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.”
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