Russia Will Ban The iPhone in 2015, Blames iCloud

The iPhone is no longer welcome in Russia, iCloud to blame

IPhone 6 Plus studio front portrait 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

With Apple selling a record 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus over its opening weekend, it’s safe to say the handsets are continuing to sell well for the Cupertino-based company. However, those sales will reportedly not continue in Russia starting next year, as both the iPhone and iPad will be banned in the Motherland.

Reported by GSMDome, Russian authorities will reportedly ban the iPhone and iPad due to worries over Apple’s iCloud service. The justification is that data saved in iCloud is not stored in local servers. The servers Apple employ for iCloud are based in the United States, not in Russia.

Apple is not the only company targeted by the newly-created law, since it applies to any online service with servers based elsewhere, including social networks. While Apple can remedy this by basing a server farm in Russia, that could arguably create a precedent.

Such a ban could be very hard to impose on iPhones already in use in Russia, so the ban could probably be more of an ISP ban, which would forbid access to iCloud. Regardless, the ban will reportedly begin on January 1, 2015.

The relationship between Russia and Apple has soured in recent days, as a Steve Jobs memorial was dismantled due to Apple CEO Time Cook’s recent announcement that he is gay.

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