Evgeni Butman says this is a natural occurrence which stems not from a decline in demand for professional hardware, but from the demand's lower growth compared to that for consumer goods. Estimates have it that iPro's share in Apple's overall revenues will drop even lower in 2007.

"We have made iPro a separate company partly because we do not want our professional solutions business to lag behind our rapidly growing retail', said Butman.

IPro will be run by Elena Sidorova who was previously head of the company's professional solutions department. According to Elena Sidorova, iPro is Russia's only distributor of Apple's professional hardware and software. Today the company has twelve firs-level partners. Among these are four distributors, six VAR-partners and two master-resellers -- Mak Center and PowerLine.

IPro describes master-sellers as companies that have big volumes of sales to end clients and provide integrated ready-to-operate solutions for professional markets such as DPP (photograph design, printing and processing) and AV (audio and video). Besides, iPro has about 70 second-level partners, mostly regional dealers whose number has grown more than twofold over 2006.

IPro's 2006 results include holding over thirty marketing events for customers and dealers in Moscow and the Russian regions. Over the year the company has built a management team and established relationship with four new direct partners. The company's plan for the financial year 2007 is to develop an efficient service network in the regions and increase sales by 55 percent.