''The price for iPhone 8 deliberately reduced so that consumer could see benefit in comparison to iPhone 7''
Amid poor sales, the price for iPhone 8 in Russia has been reduced by almost 20%
A recent market survey, conducted by experts from Hi-tech Mail.ru, has revealed that just a few months after the start of sales the price for iPhone 8 drops by 20%. Realnoe Vremya interviewed market participants and find out what is the reason for such decrease and whether the ''confrontation'' between iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 could affect the situation. Our interlocutors also spoke about the recent explosions of Apple devices in a number of European stores and told whether there have been incidents with ''exploding iPhones'' in Kazan.
''The price has been deliberately reduced so that consumer could see benefit''
The price of iPhone 8, released in Russian stores in late September of last year, has dropped by almost 20% over several months. This is evidenced by data market research conducted by experts at Hi-tech Mail.ru. According to the data published by the portal, today many sellers offer the 'junior'' model of iPhone 8 64 GB at the price of 45-46 thousand rubles, while on the first days of sales the price was remaining at the level of 57 thousand rubles.
Market participants interviewed by Realnoe Vremya note that the price dynamics for this model is quite uneven, and it also indicates that in many respects it has been affected by the struggle for ''a place under the sun'' with the cheaper model — iPhone 7. For example, director of the Kazan network of branded shops and service centres ProStore Ayrat Akhmetzyanov describes the situation with the change in price for iPhone 8 the following way:
''Before the New year, there actually was a price drop, however, I would like to note that just recently all of the federal networks again have raised the price for these devices – an increase took place just two days ago. As for the reasons for the decline, in my opinion, the fact that sales of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were not as active as planned played its role here. For this reason, the seventh model line, which was best-selling, for some time was suspended and turned into deficit (the vendor Apple Rus and the federal retail networks did not have them in sale). At this moment, for later models such as iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X — there has been a significant decline in prices so that the consumer could see a slight and advantageous difference in price between the new and older models.''
As our interviewee explained, the prices of iPhone 8 64 GB and iPhone 7 128 GB were almost the same, respectively, people began to make choices in favour of iPhone 8. Akhmetzyanov's associate, director of the salon Skyron Dmitry Rybakov gave similar data, ''Now the difference in price is being only 3,000 rubles, and in such situation it is always better to buy a new model because the old model slows down over some time, and this is done intentionally so that people bought new models.''
''iPhone 7 will disappear at all soon — Apple will stop producing it''
The interviewees of our publication agreed that iPhone 8 that was produced in large volume, unfortunately, is not sold in sufficient quantity. The online electronics store Applik provided similar information to Realnoe Vremya, ''We have not particularly noted that iPhone 8 was particularly in demand – there definitely was no rush.''
Director of Skyron Dmitry Rybakov also said that buyers were not very active to buy iPhone 8 because of a significant difference in price previously observed, ''In my opinion, iPhone 7 will disappear at all soon — Apple will stop producing it, there will be only iPhone 8. They always do that way.''
''The information about exploding iPhones is probably spread by Samsung''
In conversation with market participants we could not help but to clarify whether ''exploding iPhones'' have already reached Kazan stores. The thing is that last week several international publications reported about two cases of explosions of smartphones in stores. The first incident took place in Zurich: an Apple Store employee received minor burns from gadget fire. There were seven people at the place of the incident, some of them were assisted, but no one needed hospitalization.
Some time later, an Apple store in Valencia was filled with smoke after an explosion of battery inside iPhone that was under repair. Store employees quickly extinguished the flames and opened window to air out the store. Three firefighters and the police arrived at the site of the accident. Nobody suffered in this incident.
''I can give a clear commentary on this subject: there actually are no proven facts that iPhones really exploded in stores. At the same time, we have specific facts about Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets: for example, at European airports you can find the information that it is forbidden to use this device in aircrafts in order to avoid accidents,'' the director of ProStore said.
His colleague from Skyron also questioned the veracity of the news and jokingly suggested that this information was spread by Samsung. Applik store informed Realnoe Vremya that they heard about the incidents, however, they hastened to add that nothing similar had happened in their store.