In a report last week, it was suggested that over in Russia, it is possible for Windows Phone to eventually eclipse Apple’s iPhone, which is arguably one of the most popular devices around. While we wait for that to happen, it seems that Russia’s third major carrier is not doing Apple any favors and have actually cut its ties with Apple and will not renew the contract they have that allows them to sell iPhones. Instead it seems that Vimplecom and their Beeline brand have decided to go ahead and sell Apple’s competitors instead, Samsung.
Beeline’s dropping of iPhones makes them the third major carrier in Russia to stop selling the iPhone, as Russia’s two biggest carriers, MTS and Megafon, have decided earlier to not renew their contracts with Apple either. Apparently this is because of the conditions that Apple has set with the carriers that would make them eligible to sell iPhones, which according to the carriers has been deemed to be quite harsh. This is definitely a blow to Apple but with the company set to open their own retail store in the country, hopefully it will curb their market share which has been slowly declining from 9% last year, to 8.4% this year.
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