Apple expects to produce around 20% fewer iPhone SEs next quarter than originally planned. This was reported by informed sources taken by Nikkei Asia, explaining that this is one of the first signs that the war in Ukraine and looming inflation have begun to affect the demand for consumer electronics. Same fate for the AirPods too. Meanwhile, Cupertino announces that Apple Pay no longer supports the Russian payment system with Mir card, filling a loophole that had allowed customers in the country to continue using the service, despite economic sanctions.
Mir is the payment circuit owned by the Russian Central Bank, founded in response to the sanctions against Moscow after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Google also announced that it has started the process of suspending Mir’s services on Google Pay. after the first support for the platform since last October. The Russians were able to use their Mir account again by adding the cards to Apple’s wallet. The company had blocked the Visa and Mastercard profiles of customers in Russia but not those related to Mir. The Russian National Card Payment System (Nspk) announced that the effective blockade by the American giant took place on 24 March.
Once excluded from the integration into Apple Pay, anyone who bases their activities on a debit or credit card via Mir cannot buy products online and in stores, taking advantage of the NFC technology of iPhones and soon Android smartphones with Google Pay. The first payment cards based on the Mir system date back to December 2015, when the circuit was only accepted by Russian companies. The following year, foreign companies arrived, such as China’s AliExpress and, in the summer of 2016, the US fast food chain McDonald’s.