Smartphones will be our guests – Newspaper Kommersant No. 198 (7399) dated 10/25/2022

Retailers and electronics suppliers said that smartphones with unusual functions and limitations began to appear more and more actively in the Russian Federation. So, among the iPhone there are devices from Japan without the ability to mute the sound of a photo, without a SIM card slot (for the USA) or with two slots (for China), Android equipment comes with alternative chargers. At first, retailers reduced prices for such smartphones, but now consumers no longer consider “features” as disadvantages. Market participants emphasize that along with non-standard configurations, consumers may also face an increased risk of marriage.

With the development of parallel imports, more and more devices with unusual functions intended for other markets began to be imported into Russia, Kommersant’s interlocutors in the electronics market said.

According to one of them, you can now buy an iPhone 14 with two SIM cards (produced for the Chinese market), without a slot for a physical SIM card (with esim, made for the USA), Japanese and Korean versions without the ability to mute the camera (so local authorities are cracking down on photographing women without their knowledge), as well as Samsung devices with activation problems or with a charger for other regions.

Another interlocutor of “Kommersant” noted that devices for Arab countries appeared in Russia, on which the FaceTime video call application does not work.

In terms of cost, such devices now practically do not differ from those that do not have any differences in functionality, although at the beginning of parallel imports this caused confusion among consumers and forced sellers to reduce prices, says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors: “Now they are paying attention to the features much less attention.

The trend in the supply of “exotic devices” is confirmed by M.Video-Eldorado: “Consumers themselves determine what characteristics they need: we have an iPhone 14 with a regular SIM card – nano-SIM and eSIM, there is an option only with a digital SIM card and there is a model with two physical nano-SIMs. A representative of the retailer noted that the cost of the iPhone depends on the amount of memory and model, there are no other differentiators, but models with eSIM only are slightly cheaper. Foreign suppliers actively offer batches of Apple equipment, including those from countries where there are specific functions, confirms Lyubov Morozova, Apple’s leading product manager at diHouse (part of the Lanit group).

“Now all the devices imported into Russia are iPhones released for the markets of other countries, in what percentage they are distributed, it’s hard to say, only customs can evaluate this, and then only if the supplier has conscientiously completed all the documents,” explains Ms. Morozova.

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, many foreign electronics manufacturers announced the suspension of the supply of their products to Russia, including Apple, Samsung, Huawei, etc. As a result, the Russian Federation removed criminal and administrative liability for the supply of foreign goods without the knowledge of the copyright holder, or the so-called parallel imports, the corresponding law was signed by President Vladimir Putin (see “Kommersant” dated June 28).

At the same time, PR director of Inventive Retail Group (re:Store, Samsung, Street Beat, etc.) Lyudmila Semushina assures that in Russia the “localized features” of devices can be bypassed. “Disabling video calls, which is available in phones for the UAE, does not work in the Russian Federation – consumers can make video calls. Or the sound of the camera, which clicks for Japanese models, cannot be turned off only if you start working with the phone in Japan,” says Ms. Semushina. Then this function will work as for the Japanese market, but if the phone is turned on for the first time in the territory of the Russian Federation, then this sound can be turned off, she emphasizes.

According to Ms. Morozova, a more serious problem lies in a different plane: due to the increase in the number of semi-official suppliers, there is a big risk of purchasing non-original products, often there are batches with defects or low-quality fakes.

Timofey Kornev