(Source: http://www.keikneu.dp.ua)

Apple and B-brands helped to increase the sales of smartphones in Russia by 40 percent.

At the year end of 2014 the sales of smartphones in Russia amounted to 26 million pieces, having increased by 39 percent, as compared with 2013. The growth made up 25 percent in monetary terms - up to 227 billion roubles.

This is stated in the research of the “Svyaznoy” group received by the editorial board of “Lenta.Ru”. The Russian market of all mobile phones grew by 5 per cent in numerical terms in 2014 (up to 41 million pieces), and by 18 percent in monetary terms (up to 254 billion roubles). The share of smartphones in total sales of mobile phones in Russia amounted to 60 percent.

The company’s analysts considered the growth drivers to be the increase in the number of the sold phones of B-brands (manufacturers of the second tier) and the growth of sales of Apple devices. The research authors explained to “Lenta.Ru” that A-brand smartphones were considered Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Nokia and LG. The other vendors were attributed to B-brands, even one of the world’s largest manufacturers, Lenovo, was included into this group. At the year end the share of sales of smartphones of B-brands reached 22 percent, taking one-fifth of the total market. Besides, the average cost of a smartphone decreased to 8,900 roubles, which is 7 percent less than in 2013, due to an increase in the implementation of the budgetary price segments.

Analysts also note an increase in sales in the medium and high price categories, where the special role on the market was played by the Apple company, whose products proved to be more popular, as compared with the previous year. The interest to innovations - iPhone 6 and 6 Plus - exceeded the demand of 2013 at least 2-3 times.

Moreover, in 2014 the brand was presented in all price segments above 10 thousand roubles, which allowed to expand the target audience of buyers. The CEO of “Svyaznoy” Michael Touch predicts that in 2015 people will continue to replace ordinary phones by smartphones. “However, due to the economic situation, Russian consumers will prefer the functionality of a smartphone to its image characteristics” - he added.