Apple’s European iPhone sales drop 21% after the company halted product sales to Russia

European smartphone shipments declined 12% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2023, marking the lowest quarterly shipment volume since the first quarter of 2012, according to Counterpoint Research group. And Apple’s iPhone wasn’t immune. 

Apple saw its iPhone sales in Europe decline 21% year-over-year, though there’s a good reason for the decline. On March 1, 2022, Apple confirmed that it had halted product sales in Russia following last week’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. The news came days after the tech giant pulled Sputnik and RT News from the App Store and disabled some Apple Pay services in the country. Samsung also withdrew from the Russian market.

Western Europe smartphone shipments declined by 14% year-over-year during the quarter while Eastern Europe limited its fall to 8% year-over-year despite being in an already battered state, says Counterpoint. All major European nations performed weakly in the second quarter of 2023, except Russia, which conversely registered 4% year-over-year growth. However, Counterpoint ays this was primarily due to lower shipments in the second quarter of 2022 – the first full quarter after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions and market exits of prominent smartphone players.

“The market is unlikely to make a full recovery `this year and 2023 smartphone shipments are set to be lower than in 2022, marking consecutive decade-low shipments in both 2022 and 2023,” says Counterpoint Associate Director Jan Stryjak. “While the economic conditions are partly to blame, consumer buying behavior is also changing, suggesting that a lower level of sales will set a new baseline. However, despite the low shipment volumes, upcoming iterations of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s foldables are likely to fare well, prompting a bump in sales volumes in the coming quarters.”