February 21, 2014. According to Svyaznoy, 330 smartphones worth 3.3bn RUR and 130,000 tablet computers worth 1.4bn RUR were sold in Yekaterinburg in 2013. The sales of smartphones rose by 51% (in terms of per-item quantity) and by 84% (in terms of money), the sales of tablet computers rose by 90% and 26%, respectively, the retail company's Regional Development Director Denis Sheibal said.

The median price of a smartphone in Yekaterinburg came to 10,000 RUR last year (which was 13% less than a year earlier); the figure for Ural Federal District was 9,700 RUR (-10%) and the figure for Russia on the whole was 9,500 RUR (-11%). According to the company's estimates, every one in four Yekaterinburg residents bought a smartphone in 2013, while the share of smartphone sales in the total volume of mobile device sales was 51%.

Last year, the sales of dual SIM smartphones rose by 250% and reached 6.5m; their share in the total volume of mobile devices sold was 35%. According to Svyaznoy representatives, the demand for the so-called camera phones (whose resolution comes to over 8 megapixels) and LTE-supporting devices.

The median price of a tablet computer in Yekaterinburg and in Russia on the whole was 11,380 RUR; for Ural Federal District, the price was 11,060 RUR. This was, respectively, 30%, 27%, and 28% less than a year earlier. The cheapest tablet computers were available for 2,200 RUR.