Government purchases of Apple equipment in the first half of 2023 decreased threefold

Russian official departments and companies in 2022 and 2023 have not yet made a single completed government purchase of smartphones from the Russian brand AYYA, which provides for operation on the secure domestic Aurora operating system. This is stated in a study by specialists from the search and analytical system for managing tenders “Tenderplan”, which Vedomosti reviewed. Two AYYA government purchases took place only in 2021 for a total amount of 1.5 million rubles. one customer – JSC Ruselectronics.

The study says that departments and companies continue to purchase equipment from the American company Apple, but less than before. In the second half of 2023, they placed 13 tenders worth RUB 8.7 million. for government purchases of Apple smartphones and tablets. This is already 33% more than in the entire second half of 2022, when they placed 10 tenders worth RUB 6.5 million.

Experts estimate that government purchases of Apple equipment in the first half of 2023 decreased in monetary terms by more than three times compared to the same period last year – from 101 million rubles. within 17 tenders in 2022 to 24.2 million within 16 tenders for the current year. In the third quarter of 2023, government orders for smartphones and tablets of this brand continue to be placed.

In 2022, official departments and companies also posted 1,707 notices, including requests for prices, for government procurement of smartphones and tablets totaling RUB 1.5 billion. For the first half of 2023, they posted 1,013 notices in the amount of 735.6 million rubles, for the same period last year – 758 notices in the amount of 739.8 million rubles. General Director of Tenderplan Maxim Kuznetsov told Vedomosti that in the category of government procurement since last year there has been a stable demand for smartphones and tablets with a tendency to grow in monetary terms.

The ban on the use of Apple technology by officials and employees of Russian state corporations began to be announced after the FSB’s June warning about the disclosure of a US intelligence campaign using a virus on the company’s mobile devices. According to the intelligence service, “several thousand” iPhones were infected with malicious software. In particular, the FSB identified anomalies “typical only for users of Apple mobile phones and caused by the operation of previously unknown software.”

As a result, during the summer, bans on the use of Apple products were introduced in the subordinate organizations of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Customs Service (FCS), Rostec, Rosaviatsiya and Russian Railways.

As Vedomosti previously wrote, Russian companies and state corporations are looking for a replacement for Apple equipment among both Russian and foreign alternatives. After the ban imposed by Rostec on July 13 on the use of Apple equipment by employees for work purposes, the state corporation switched to smartphones of its own brand AYYA. The restrictions affected not only smartphones, but also tablets and laptops from Apple. “Priority is given to models from Russian manufacturers. “Including employees are switching to smartphones of our own brand AYYA,” a Rostec representative told Vedomosti.

There is interest in the Russian smartphone brand AYYA, says Kuznetsov: since the beginning of 2023, five requests for prices for government procurement have been posted. “Since such requests do not always indicate the tender amount, we see the amounts for only two of them, in total they amount to 2.59 million rubles. Taking into account the fact that since 2021 there have been only two government purchases of this brand, it can be assumed that its sales will grow significantly from this year,” he added.

Leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin emphasizes that a smartphone with the domestic Aurora system will become a specialized device, and not a consumer smartphone. “Access of smartphones and Apple equipment to corporate systems can be limited: the system sees from which device you logged into the network. By the end of 2023, such access restrictions will begin – this is our path,” says Murtazin. Official departments, in turn, began to switch to the Android operating system: the presidential administration is now switching to Galaxy s23 ultra, security forces prefer the HarmonyOS system from Huawei, the expert concluded.