Reports have hit the web suggesting three of the biggest mobile carriers in Russia have now dropped support for iPhone in favour of devices running Android or Windows Phone.
Details are currently sketchy, but CNN is reporting that local carrier VimpelCom is the third operator to sever ties with Apple, following on from rivals MTS and MegaFon.
The decision to walk away is apparently due, in part, to Apple's strict conditions for distributors.
Contradiction
However, in a somewhat contradictory statement, VimpelCom has told Telecoms.com that it will continue to sell Apple's handsets.
Even more confusingly, the firm did not deny reports suggesting its support for iPhone had been pulled.
Either way, iPhone is enduring a tough time in the Russian market, with IDC reporting that its share of the market in the region has fallen from 9 percent to 8.3 percent.
That puts it only narrowly ahead of rival Microsoft's Windows Phone, which saw its share rise to 8.2 percent across the same period an increase that suggests the carriers' supposedly anti-Apple stance is already having an impact.
Tight race
Earlier in the month, Andrei Dubovskov - CEO of Russia's largest carrier OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) - told Bloomberg his company would need better terms if it were to begin selling iPhones in the region again.
MTS dropped the iPhone in Russia at the end of 2012 in favour of other platforms such as Windows Phone.
"Apple wants operators to pay them huge money, subsidising iPhones and their promotion in Russia," said Dubovskov
"Now it's not beneficial for us. It's good we stopped selling the iPhone as these sales would've brought us a negative margin."
Apple's experience in Russia mirrors that of many other territories in eastern Europe, where the iPhone 5 still isn't compatible with all of the LTE frequencies used across the region.
Commentators believe it's countries such as these along with the likes of China that offer Apple the most opportunity for growth, however, with iPhone's share in the US and the EU5 (the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) believed to be topping out.
[source: Fierce Wireless]
