IPhone 17 Officially Available In Moscow, Pre-Order Soared 66% Despite The Lesu Economy

JAKARTA Resellers in Russia officially introduced Apple's newest iPhone 17 in a number of stores on Saturday, September 20, marked by a sharp spike in early bookings despite the country's economic condition slowing down.

Big technology retailer Restore: reporting a 66% increase in pre-order compared to last year. This trend shows that consumer demand for popular products like the iPhone remains strong, although Russia is facing its highest interest rate in the last 20 years and a budget deficit that penetrated 4 trillion rubles.

The iPhone's popularity in Russia has proven to not subside, although Apple has stopped official sales since 2022 and suspended services such as Apple Pay as a result of Western sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. The iPhone price in Russia is even higher than the Western market.

This year we received 66% more pre-orders than last year. There is a large fan base that will never exchange iPhones for other brands," said Lyudmila Semushina, Director of PR Inventive Retail Group, owner of the Restore network:, at Afimall City outlets, Moscow's modern business area surrounded by Europe's tallest skyscraper.

Apple released the iPhone 17 line globally this week, presenting a new design, an upgraded camera, and a new model called the iPhone Air.

I'm starting to consider turning to the iPhone Air. This is a big update, "said Oleg Kochetkov, one of the customers who added that Russian citizens are now using FaceTime more after the government restricted WhatsApp and Telegram calls.

Sementara itu, blogger teknologi Sergei Yepikhin menilai peningkatan kamera menjadi daya tarik utama. Ia bahkan mempertimbangkan beralih dari Android ke iPhone Pro, meskipun Android masih lebih mudah digunakan di Rusia. Ia berharap perusahaan lokal bisa menghadirkan solusi agar iPhone lebih nyaman digunakan.

To contain the Apple Pay ban, major Russian banks such as Sber and T-Bank recently launched their own contactless payment service.

The iPhone 17 product displayed at Restore outlets: on Saturday is still limited to display, while consumers can only pre-order with delivery in the next few days.

There was always a bit of a shortage of new iPhones at the start of the launch, Semushina said. He added that supply chains remained stable, but additional logistics costs from parallel import mechanisms made prices soar.

On the online website Restore:, the basic 256 GB version of the iPhone 17 is priced at 119,990 rubles (around Rp. 23.4 million), or 57% more expensive than the official price in the United States and 29% higher than the price in the UK.

According to M. Video Eldorado data, Apple will become the brand of smartphones with the highest sales revenue in Russia by 2024. However, in terms of the number of units, the peak position is still controlled by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi.

Apple itself has not commented on this launch.