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5,000 iPhone 6 models smuggled to Russia

Prices of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus hit about $2,600 on the grey market, Hi-Tech Mail.Ru editor-in-chief Anton Spiridonov says

© EPA/VINCENT JANNINK

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.

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Internet & Telecom Telecommunications Apple iPhone Cell phones

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