Information has been confirmed that the Svyaznoy group has become a direct seller of Apple smartphones in Russia, Kommersant reports. In an interview with the newspaper, the group’s CEO Denis Ludkovsky also reported on Russian sales and ARPU of iPhone operators.
From now on, Svyaznoy will be able to purchase an iPhone from Apple without intermediaries, as well as act as a Premium Reseller of the Apple company. In addition to this network in Russia, only MTS and Vimpelcom have similar rights, which this spring the Federal Antimonopoly Service accused of agreeing prices for iPhone4. Correspondents of Kommersant associate the signing of the Apple contract with Svyaznoy with this fact.
The details of the transaction are unknown, but as Ludkovsky stated, his company “has a great interest” in creating and developing its own network of Apple Premium Reseller stores. However, given that the Vedomosti data, which we recently wrote about, was confirmed in relation to the transaction between Svyaznoy and Apple, it would be logical to assume that they will come true about the chain of stores.
But that’s not the most curious thing. The most interesting thing is the figures, which were told by the general director of Svyaznoy. So, the annual sales growth of mobile phones and smartphones (by the way, it’s a pity that they don’t share them) of the network amounted to 22%. If we talk specifically about the iPhone, then in 10 months one of the largest Russian retailers was able to sell only 70 thousand gadgets.
ARPU (in this case we are talking directly about subscribers and their costs, including mobile communications) with the iPhone in Russia is one of the largest. It is about 1 thousand rubles, while for smartphones this figure ranges between 600-700 rubles. On ordinary phones, ARPU reaches a maximum of 300 rubles.