Apple lost share in the Russian mobile market
By ForGeeks
From January through September 2025, Apple’s share of the Russian mobile market fell from 31.3% to 25.2% in monetary terms. The company’s sales reached 116 billion rubles. Samsung increased its share by 3.4 percentage points to 20%, earning 92 billion rubles. This was reported to Forbes by sources in the market.
Experts attribute the decline in Apple’s position to increased competition in the mid-price segment, where Android brands were growing more actively. Alexander Yanush, head of the Telecom Mobile purchasing group at Citilink, pointed to retailers’ concerns about the unstable economy and dollar volatility, which has led to a slight shortage of products.
Marvel Distribution’s head of retail projects Anton Fomin cited the sales structure as a key factor. Apple equipment in Russia has traditionally been sold mainly on credit – about 70% of the total volume. The high key rate has created problems, and the company itself does not support the Russian market either marketingly or commercially.
In volume terms, the leader was Samsung with a 7.1% share, selling 4.1 million units. The brand overtook previous leader Redmi, whose share was 6.6% (3.8 million units). Unexpectedly, Chinese accessory maker Remax broke into the top three with a 4.8% share (2.8 million units).
After the September launch of the iPhone 17, Apple’s share in monetary terms rose from 24.2% in September to 31% in October, but fell to 28.4% in November. For January through November 2025, the company’s share was 26.9%, while Samsung’s share was 21.3%.
A spokesperson for MTS confirmed that demand for the iPhone 17 was twice as high as for the iPhone 16 last year and five times higher than for the iPhone 15 in 2023. RVB Group, which owns Wildberries, said that for some colors and storage capacities, demand is outpacing supply. The exception is the iPhone 17 Air, which hasn’t gained popularity.
The total smartphone market for the first nine months of 2025 amounted to about 460 billion rubles, M.Video-Eldorado said. In physical terms, sales rose from 56.4 million to 58.6 million devices, up 4%. Market participants forecast a 10-16% drop in units by the end of the year.
