MOSCOW, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. About 5,000 new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models have been smuggled to Russia days before the start of official sales, a leading Russian IT news website said on Monday.
Hi-Tech Mail.Ru editor-in-chief Anton Spiridonov said that only 1,500 out of some 5,000 smuggled iPhones had been sold from Friday to Sunday as compared to 40,000 iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c grey-market devices sold in Russia last year when the launch of official sales was delayed for a month.
He said that prices of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus hit 100,000 rubles (about $2,600) on the grey market. Russia's Apple fans will have to pay at least 32,000 rubles ($828) for iPhone 6 and 37,000 rubles ($957) when the new model goes on sale on September 26.
New 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus are bigger than the four-inch display of the iPhone 5S. The new models also have an improved camera, longer battery life and a faster processor.
The new phones went on sale on September 19 in ten countries, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore.