OREANDA-NEWS  Over the past year, the average cost of smartphones in Russia has decreased by almost 20 percent — from 23,300 to 19,200 rubles. Such data was provided to Vedomosti by the GS Group analytical company.

According to Telecom Daily and Wildberries estimates, the price dropped to 19,500 rubles or 15,000 rubles, respectively. The trend was confirmed by Tele2 operators, Megafon, MTS, as well as the M.video-Eldorado group. The representative of the company noted that most of the sales came from Chinese brand devices — 65 percent in quantitative terms against 50 percent a year earlier. The most popular brands among Russians in 2022 were Xiaomi, Realme, Samsung, Apple, Tecno.

The dynamics is explained by the withdrawal of expensive models of Apple and Samsung brands from the market, GS Group believes. The decline in prices is also associated with the strengthening of the ruble, says Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics, and Anton Fomin, a business analyst at F+ tech-Marvel Group, calls the reason for the reduction in the price the general drop in Russians' spending on unnecessary expenses and the choice in favor of more budget models of devices.