If you want a good deal on an iPhone, get to Russia now.
Apple iPhones and iPads might actually cost more in rubles than they did at the beginning of the year. But the dramatic collapse of the Russian currency has led the value of the gizmos to crumble when converted to U.S. dollars.
Apple raised prices of iPhones and iPads in Russia in November and is alternating between shuttering and re-opening its online store as it tries to come to grips with the ruble’s value.
An iPhone can now be had for just $646 in Russia. A year ago, an iPhone would have set you back by $911 there. That’s a 34% decrease. The iPad starts at $461 in Russia today, but was priced at $746 at the beginning of 2014 — a 38% drop.
That makes Russian iGizmo prices among the cheapest on the planet. According to the latest CommSec’s iPad index, a comparison of iPad prices across 53 countries, an iPad in Russia currently would be the world’s cheapest. It’s several dollars lower than in Canada, the next-least-expensive place to buy Apple devices.
By comparison, an iPad costs $499 in the United States, $473 in Canada, $578 in China and $975 in Argentina — the most expensive place to buy Apple gadgets.
The ruble began sinking after the United States and other countries imposed sanctions on Russia in the summer. But as oil prices tumbled recently the value of the ruble went into a free fall. The Russian currency is now worth roughly half what it could fetch in U.S. dollars at the start of 2014.
As the ruble went into a tailspin in late November, Apple shuttered its online store temporarily.
It reopened after a two-day hiatus on Nov. 26, when Apple raised the price of an iPhone 6 to 39,990 rubles, up 20% from the previous 31,990-ruble pricetag, according to widespread Russian media reports.
The iPhone 6 Plus got a 10,000-ruble (21%) bump to 46,990 rubles. And Apple raised the price of the iPad Air 2 by 14% to 28,490 rubles, a 4,000-ruble increase.
Apple again closed its online store on Tuesday, waiting out the ruble’s extreme volatility. The ruble’s value fell by 19% on Tuesday, and is up 12% on Wednesday.