Amaya Toman The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a law last week, making it impossible to sell certain devices that do not have pre-installed Russian software. The law should enter into force next June. Before that happens, the Russian government has yet to publish a list of devices that will be affected by the new law, as well as specify the software that will need to be pre-installed. In theory, the iPhone could stop being sold in Russia, among other things.
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Oleg Nikolayev, one of the co-authors of the new regulation, explained that many Russians have no idea that there are local alternatives to the applications that come pre-installed on smartphones imported into the country.
"When we buy complex electronic devices, individual applications, mostly Western, are already pre-installed in them. Naturally, when one sees them … one may think that there are no local alternatives available. If we were to offer Russian ones along with pre-installed applications to users, they would have the right to choose." explains Nikolaev.
But even in its home country of Russia, the draft law was not met with a unequivocally positive reception - there were concerns that the pre-installed software would not contain user tracking tools. According to the Association of Trade Companies and Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK), it is likely that it will not be possible to install Russian software on all devices. Some global manufacturers may thus be forced to leave the Russian market. The law could affect, for example, Apple, which is famous for the closedness of its operating systems - the company would certainly not allow unknown Russian software to be pre-installed in its smartphones.
According to Statcounter data from October this year, South Korea's Samsung has the largest share of the Russian smartphone market, namely 22,04%. Huawei is in second place with 15,99%, while Apple is in third place with 15,83%.
Source: PhoneArena
