Apple iPhone 5C and 5S too Expensive for Russia

Apple Inc.'s latest iPhones, the high-end iPhone 5S and low-cost iPhone 5C are reportedly not doing well in Russia, as their prices are still too expensive for the buyers.

The Cupertino-based company started selling its iPhone on Russia Thursday.

Simon Baker, an analyst at IDC in Moscow, told Bloomberg, "If Apple really wants to compete with Samsung, it should've come up with a much lower price for the 5C. It's really a matter of what Apple wants: to have a really global product and retain market share as the smartphone market moves toward cheaper price brackets, or to focus on making the maximum profit."

Apple has tried to win the Russian smartphone market for six years now but it is still at about eight percent because the iDevices seem very expensive for Russians. Samsung, on the hand, with its introduction of cheaper Android smartphones, has gained more than half of the Russian smartphone sales.

Meanwhile, Apple's sales growth last quarter pressured Apple chief executive Tim Cook more to create innovations that will entice new customer groups.

Most of the Apple's sales growth in Russia for 2013 was brought by older versions like the $500-iPhone 4S, which consumers prefer over the high-end iPhone 5S because of the price.

Russia is one of the 30 countries where iPhones went on sale Thursday. A dozen more countries including India will also go on sale next week. In India, Apple gains a less than 10 percent of sales.

While Cook claims in a statement in July that he is "really happy" with its sales performance in Russia, Apple spokesperson in London, Bethan Lloyd, declines to comment.

Eldar Murtazin, an independent analyst in Moscow, told Bloomberg in a phone interview, "iPhone sales aren't doing great globally. However, to turn tables up, "such a large market as Russia may help."