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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Despite an official ban on Russian government workers using the iPhone, an unreliable report says that sales have risen dramatically.
It was in 2023 that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) tried banning government staff from using iPhones. Purportedly, it was because the FSB believed the US was using the iPhone for eavesdropping.
Now according to Reuters, local Russian sources are saying the ban rather failed. While the figures have yet to be confirmed by any other source, the Vedomosti business daily claims that purchases of iPhones from January 2024 to September would four times higher year over year.
[...] That rather dispels any idea that Russian officials are rebelling against the ban en masse. But it also points to how the original ban was seemingly far from a blanket one.
Equally, that destroys the idea that the FSB can be serious in its allegations of iPhone wiretapping. It's always been more likely that any ban is a retaliation for how Apple has ceased directly doing business in Russia since the start of the war with Ukraine.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Unixnut on Wednesday October 30 2024, @10:21AM (6 children)
TFS makes no sense to me, it starts with:
If the report is known unreliable why are you even bothering to use it?
Its highly likely they are, although I would trust Android even less. I have no doubt the NSA/five-eyes has backdoored pretty much all technology made in the Anglosphere, and using those backdoors against their adversaries is exactly what the NSA exists for.
Likewise bans on certain technology in governments is not just a Russian thing, but quite common. I remember the UK banned Huawei and other Chinese tech companies not only for government staff, but also banned their networking gear from being used anywhere on the telecoms network in the UK due to fears of backdoors (which have never been publicly shown to exist).
In fact the UK went even further and banned Huawei from selling any tech in the UK, even mobile phones to non government end-users.
Ok, but even if this unconfirmed rumour is true, the ban was only for government staff which is only a small proportion of the population of Russia, the rest of the country can buy whatever they want, including iPhones. So I don't see how that means the ban failed.
Again, what people use as a personal phone is not banned or restricted, so it doesn't prove or disprove the wiretapping allegations. If I give it a quick thought the rise in sales could be for two reasons:
(1) Russians anticipate that Apple may further restrict the use of Apple devices in future so are buying "ahead of time"
(2) The Russian economy is rapidly growing [businessinsider.com], and with such growth a countries middle class is also grows in wealth, so more people who can now afford what is effectively a vanity hand-size status symbol actually buy one
However, if Apple has ceased doing business in Russia, that would mean that things like iCloud can't be registered in Russia, you can't create an Apple account, you probably can't even register the phone. Likewise I can't see the app store working either, as in addition to registration you would need to process payments using Apple pay, which would not be available in Russia.
So if Russians can't actually use an iPhone as anything more than a dumbphone and expensive paperweight, why would they be binge buying them?
Honestly, to me this summary seems like it is all over a place, connections made between things that don't seem to logically fit together. If the TFS is this bad, I don't even want to imagine how bad TFA itself is.
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday October 30 2024, @11:14AM (3 children)
The ban was official, as stated.
However, the reporting of sales is not from an official source. The Russian government might not wish the figures to be published. It is from a source that would have access to such information but who knows the reason for it being issued. Is it malicious? Is it to bypass Russian censorship? Is it because a journalist was paid for what he wrote?
We have provided 4 sources giving various viewpoints and explanations of what is happening, You can read all 4, and others too if you wish, to decide what you think is the most likely of them.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday October 30 2024, @05:12PM (2 children)
So, the data is reliable, just not official?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 30 2024, @07:20PM
I suspect not official government figures.
I looked it up online and the big private mobile network operators in the free world (now that means Russia, unfortunately) are MTS, Beeline, and Megafon.
Your guess is as good as mine for who ratted out the internal monitoring data. Presumably they have various technical measures to determine what kind of phone a sim is inserted into.
Probably a good idea for whomever did it to pretend the government released the figures.
From what I can tell, MTS is the legacy formerly govt provider likely with interesting connections to the govt even today, Beeline is some foreigners incorporated in Bermuda, Megafon is kind of a startup owned by a local.
So its probably Megafon who released the data, to make MTS (former govt cooperators) and Beeline (untrustworthy foreigners) look bad. I don't think Megafon will get much out of it, unless they release some "interesting" press releases and advertising to leverage the situation. You'll find out in a couple weeks, most likely.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday October 30 2024, @07:21PM
Are journalists reliable? If we do not know the motive for the report you will have to reach your own conclusions.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Wednesday October 30 2024, @01:44PM (1 child)
My first thought was whether the components in the iPhones can easily be repurposed for other things - or, indeed, the iPhones themselves.
There could be a disassembly line removing useful components not obtainable in other ways, or even connecting the iPhone to 'something' that makes use of the built-in iPhone capabilities.
Just a thought. Back to your usual programming now...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Wednesday October 30 2024, @02:00PM
I really can't think of anything in an iphone (or any other phone) that is so hard to get that you would need to disassemble the thing. Plus I think the phones are glued together now, so good luck prying that open without destroying the components in there.
The iphones are pretty much assembled from Chinese parts in China, if Russia really needs some components I am sure they can just buy it direct from China.