Experts started talking about the mass shutdown of smartphones in Russia: not only iPhones will suffer

“Formally, we already go with “bricks” – phone software works only thanks to “gray” imports”

Russians may be left without working smartphones. Due to sanctions, communication devices are threatened with remote shutdown, as experts are increasingly saying. We are talking primarily about “smart” phones based on Android and iOS operating systems.

Why such talks began and what is the probability of blocking smartphones, experts discussed at a press conference at the National News Service.

It is hardly worth talking about the return of our country to the era of push-button phones, expresses hope, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Artem Kiryanov. But if Western manufacturers nevertheless decide to turn off “intelligent” gadgets, one should rely only on the Chinese, and not on domestic manufacturers.

– Our attempts to make operating systems, to put it mildly, are not encouraging, – says Kiryanov. – We had “Tigafon”, the production of which turned out to be unprofitable. Smartphone “Rostec” also did not win the hearts of Russians. For all the time, 14 thousand phones were produced, and only 400 were sold. Perhaps you need to ask marketers involved in the promotion of these devices why the Russians do not know anything about domestic phones.

In the coming years, it is required to develop our own “smart” phones, which would not be ashamed to hold in our hands. If Russian specialists are not able to make them on their own, it is necessary to cooperate, for example, with China, which, by the way, has been working on the creation of smartphones for about ten years.

“Formally, we can already say that the Russians walk with “bricks,” says Herman Klimenko, chairman of the board of the Digital Economy Development Fund, founder of LiveInternet. – From the software we are disconnected. And for the fact that smartphones still work in Russia, you need to thank parallel imports (importation of original products into the country without the consent of the copyright holder). The situation now is almost the same as in the 1990s, when goods were brought to Russia by shuttles.

The “bricks” that smartphones can turn into were first discussed in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, Herman Klimenko recalls: “Even then it was clear that things weren’t going very well with domestic software.”

Klimenko says he doesn’t believe in Russian phones at all. At best, domestic developers can produce software for installation on smartphones made in China. And if the West still turns off Russian gadgets, it will not be fun at all.

– We are completely dependent on the Chinese comrades, on whether they will agree to put our software on their hardware, – the expert states. – In any case, such phones will lag behind world standards, because the Chinese will not produce them at all in modern factories. Nevertheless, we will have some quality “iron”. Again – I’m talking only about potential cooperation, we do not have a level of readiness.

Internet Ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev is sure that Russia has only one way not to be left out of civilization: to create electronic engineering. “If we have our own chips and software and hardware systems, we will be able to compete with China and with anyone else. Huawei and Samsung are already leaving the Russian market. The issue is political, not economic. My forecast is – they will not massively turn Russian teleons into “bricks”, but the set of services to which we are accustomed has already been sharply reduced and will inevitably continue to decline,” concludes Dmitry Marinichev.