MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. The majority of iPhone users in Russia do not mind pre-installed applications on their smartphones, but three-fourths of them prefer choosing all apps for their devices on their own and downloading them from App Store. This is according to a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center VTsIOM, as seen by TASS.

The VTsIOM poll was commissioned by the Wanta Group and Grayling on November 18. It covered 2,000 Russian iPhone users aged 18 to 50 years old. They were asked several questions about pre-installed apps on devices they bought after the law on the pre-installation of Russian applications came into effect. The sampling error with a 95% probability does not exceed 2.2%.

"The overwhelming majority of the respondents (80%) find it convenient to interact with pre-installed apps, which are currently used in the system: on the setting screen with 13 apps users can choose those they would like to download. Every fifth respondent (20%) does not welcome this," the authors of the poll noted.

Three-fourths of respondents (77%) prefer to choose all the apps on their own, 18% find it convenient when only part of the applications recommended for installation appears on the smartphone in the form of a list or icons, and the remaining recommended apps they can choose and download on their own.

Only 3% of respondents said they would prefer as many recommended applications as possible were installed already at the production stage, so that they would not have to download anything extra.

Top 3 popular apps

The top-3 most frequently installed and used applications in recent years included VKontakte, Gosuslugi, and Mail.ru.

According to the poll, Russian smartphone owners install these applications either during the use of their devices or already on the stage of setup stage.

In particular, VKontakte is installed by 59% of respondents while using their phones, with 20% installing it during setup.

The Gosuslugi service is downloaded by 62% of the respondents while using the phone, 18% - at the setup stage.

Mail.ru is downloaded by 56% of respondents during use versus 25% who download the application from the settings screen.

Of the 13 applications recommended for preinstallation, only two (VKontakte and Gosuslugi) interest users significantly: 79% of respondents have used the first one in the last three months, and 58% have used the second.

Strategic Development Director of VTsIOM Stepan Lvov believes that the availability of recommended applications does not make Russian iPhone users feel that their choice is somehow limited.

"Three-quarters of the respondents consider the situation of free choice to be comfortable. At the same time, four out of five respondents consider the implementation of the provisions of the law in the form of a start-up package quite convenient," he said.

Most likely, this decision is perceived as one of the options for free choice and is on a par with other ways of promoting products on the market for applications for private use, Lvov noted.

About the law

The law on the compulsory pre-installation of Russian apps on smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs with the Smart TV function sold in the country came into force in April 2021. The list of specific applications is determined by the Ministry for Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.

Most popular applications with an audience of at least 500,000 users (with the exception of certain classes of programs) are selected for pre-installation. The list of Russian apps for pre-installation includes in particular the following apps: Yandex Browser, Yandex search engine, Yandex.Maps, Yandex.Disk, Mail.ru, ICQ messenger, Marusya voice assistant, News Mail.ru, social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, MirPay (only on Android devices), and Gosuslugi.