Yevroset now has fewer Motorola phones than stores, spokeswoman Ulyana Smolskaya said, referring to the chain’s 3,700 outlets. She attributed the drop-off to the lack of deliveries from Motorola and their narrow product line.
Svyaznoi is also selling off the last of its Motorola handsets, with fewer than 150 in its 1,790 stores, spokeswoman Yelena Nogotkova said. MTS’s retail chain of 3,000 stores sold its last Motorola phones by the start of summer, spokesman Ochir Mandzhikov stated.
According to VTB Capital estimates, the three companies control about 60 percent of the mobile phone retail market.
Currently, almost no Motorola handsets are being delivered to Russia, said Kirill Lubnin, a spokesman for the U.S. company. Yevroset, for example, is interested in budget models, which Motorola doesn’t have at the moment, he said.
Motorola has “taken a pause” in deliveries to Russia, but several new models will be on Russian shelves this fall, including some based on the Google Android operating system, Lubnin said.
Motorola’s position has weakened for several years in a row, said Dmitry Kuznetsov, communications director at Samsung’s Russian office.
In the first half of 2004, Motorola was leading sales in Russia thanks to its hit model, the RAZR, and finished that year with 22.7 percent of the market, just slightly behind Samsung’s 23.1 percent, according to Mobile Research Group.
In 2005, Nokia managed to bump Motorola from second place, and in the first quarter of 2007 Motorola slid into fourth. The trend has mirrored the company’s position worldwide, where it has fallen from 23 percent of the market in 2006 — for second place behind Nokia — to 5.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009, according to the Financial Times.
Samsung’s Kuznetsov said he thought that the virtual disappearance of Motorola phones in Russia was a result of its global problems, particularly delays in releasing new models.
Motorola is readjusting its portfolio and focusing on midrange phones, not on sales volumes, co-chief executive Sanjay Jha recently said, the FT reported.
But the problem is not just the assortment.
Svyaznoi “is also not satisfied with the terms of working” with Motorola, which is why they stopped buying their phones in December, Nogotkova said.
Because of the crisis, retailers need a delay in payments to suppliers, and Motorola has refused to do that, said a manager from a competing supplier.
Motorola spokesman Lubnin said the terms of the company’s contract with Svyaznoi were being reconsidered and that new handsets should appear on store shelves there in September or October. Talks are also under way with Yevroset and MTS, he said.
Smolskaya, of MTS, confirmed the talks, while Mandzhikov said MTS was “always open to offers.”
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