Popular Samsung smartphones have disappeared from sale in a number of regions

Some Samsung smartphones have become unavailable in the regions or can only be purchased with delivery after a few days. Experts explain this by the appearance of a new line and the fact that

The fact that some models of Samsung smartphones have disappeared from sale in certain Russian regions was told to RBC by several participants in the telecommunications market. This information was confirmed to RBC by Tatyana Skokova, distribution DIRECTOR of the Wide Distribution division of Merlion (distributor of APPLE and Samsung).

According to one of the interlocutors of RBC, due to the lack of goods, retailers are forced to bring goods only at the request of buyers. Based on the information on the M.Video-Eldorado website, residents of Ufa are now offered to purchase Samsung Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra smartphones with delivery on July 31 - August 1, that is, five days after the order. In Nizhny Novgorod, only individual models of Samsung “S-series” are available, and there are simply no budget options for “A-series”. Only some models of Samsung A-series and Samsung Galaxy S21+ are available in Citylink network in Perm. Residents of Chelyabinsk on the MTS website can purchase the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 12 with 256 Gb only by picking it up on July 31 without delivery. With an expectation of two to four days, it sells the 128 GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra model and MegaFon to users in Omsk. Svyaznoy does not have the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 12 in stock. In the T2 RTK Holding online store (Tele2 brand), it is proposed to check the availability of models in specific stores. At the same time, there are no such difficulties in Moscow.

In offline stores of retailers (MTS, M.Video-Eldorado, DNS, VimpelCom, T2 RTK Holding and MegaFon), for example, in Chelyabinsk, the limited choice is especially noticeable in the price category of smartphones up to 50 thousand rubles ., the correspondent of RBC was also convinced.

The distributor of Apple and Samsung said about the "commodity hole" Technology and media

MegaFon's sales director David Borzilov said that the company is seeing a "small" shortage of several Samsung smartphone models, but "for a significant part" of the brand's models, their stock is enough to meet current demand. A Citilink spokesman said that they have "a large stock of Samsung products" and continue to sell it in the regions. “Depending on the demand in the region, the supply may differ. Our model of work involves the delivery of goods to stores from distribution centers according to the actual needs of the user, depending on the remoteness of the city, the delivery time varies, but on average it does not exceed three to five days, ”he says.

The representative of MTS said that there is no shortage of gadgets in their network, "there are enough goods to satisfy the demand of buyers." The representative of T2 RTK Holding (Tele2 brand) did not answer the question about the shortage, but assured that, despite the decline in Samsung sales in RUSSIA in the second quarter of 2022, the share of smartphone users of this brand among their subscribers increased by 1 p.p. . year by year. Representatives of VimpelCom (Beeline brand) and Svyaznoy declined to comment. RBC sent a request to M.Video-Eldorado.

Why there are not enough Samsung smartphones

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According to Tatyana Skokova, the main reason for the problems with the assortment is the lack of official supplies from Samsung. This vendor announced the termination of deliveries of the production on March, 5th, having explained the decision with "geopolitical events".

In early May, the Ministry of Industry and Trade published a list of products allowed for import under the parallel import scheme, that is, without the permission of the copyright holder, which included goods and materials from about a hundred foreign brands, including Samsung. However, Skokova noted that parallel imports have not yet been fully operational: the existing mechanism cannot ensure the continuity of supplies and the volumes of products adequate to the needs of consumers. “A number of reasons contribute to this: broken supply chains, limited funding for such supplies, difficulties in customs clearance, service support for such products, and others,” she explained.

The COURT confirmed the legality of the sale of smartphones with Samsung Rau in Russia Business

A source in the telecommunications market told RBC that now all stocks of Samsung equipment imported before the beginning of March have "run out." According to him, the largest deficit is observed among the new Samsung A-series models, as they enter the country only through parallel imports. Another interlocutor of RBC in the telecommunications market agrees with this. “Old models leave the market, new ones that arrive are quickly sold out at the start, so it is difficult to maintain stocks at the proper level. We observed this often in peacetime, ”he explained.

At the end of March, a Citilink representative estimated that, on average, stocks of products from Samsung, Apple and other vendors that had stopped official deliveries should last for two to three months.

Against the background of the cessation of supplies, the share of Samsung, Apple and some other foreign smartphone manufacturers began to decline, while the share of Chinese brands, on the contrary, is growing. According to Marvel Distribution, in the first half of this year, sales of Tecno, Infinix, Realme and Xiaomi grew by more than 100% in physical terms, Nokia - by 40%, Poco (Xiaomi's sub-brand) - by 16%. While the share of Apple decreased by 14% year-on-year, and Samsung - by 15%. In total, just over 10 million mobile phones were sold in Russia during this period, which is 23% less than in the same period in 2021.