Russian sales of Apple's iPad plummeted in the first quarter of this year, booting the U.S. tech giant from its spot last year as a top three tablet seller as Russia's economic crisis stifled demand, news agency RBC reported Wednesday.
Apple's market share dropped from 16.7 percent to 4.4 percent in a market totaling some 1 million units, coming in at 7th place in the tablet market, analytics firm IDC said in a statement.
IDC blamed the drop on Russia's economic crisis, which it said has forced customers to either abandon plans to buy Apple's pricey tablet or else find cheaper alternatives.
"The fall in real incomes has led to reduced purchasing power and the consumer has moved into savings mode," IDC analyst Natalya Vinogradova was quoted by RBC as saying.
Real incomes in March fell by 9.3 percent year-on-year as inflation rose precipitously, state statistics agency Rosstat said.
Apple's iPad is priced significantly higher than its competitors Samsung and Asus. In a market where the average price for a tablet has fallen from 13,000 rubles ($260) to 7,400 rubles ($148) in a year, the iPad's starting price is 33,490 rubles ($671).
Apple was not the only tablet producer to take a beating, though, as Russia's economy moves toward what some say will be a 5 percent recession — IDC found that in the first quarter of 2015, tablet manufacturers shipped 39.5 percent fewer tablets to Russia.
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