As was Noted Here a few months ago = the new crew in Vietnam is ready to rumble with debut re-launch event set for Hanoi on 15th September! See details, as posted via FaceBook, below:
Khám phá thị trường di động cùng MobileMonday 9/2011
Đăng ký: http://www.mobilemonday.vn/event.html
Hạn cuối đăng kí: 23h59 ‘ngày 13 Tháng Chín 2011.
• Thị trường […]

Presenting itself before the
public in September at IFA 2010 trade fair, Samsung Galaxy Tab caught the
special attention from the public, because this was considered an Android
tablet with the great potentials to become a redoubtable rival of Apple iPad.
At that moment, at all high-tech forums, both domestic and foreign, analysts
highly spoke of the “new star”, especially when they believed that the new star
would have competitive prices if compared with iPad.

The day when Samsung
Galaxy Tab appears on shelves is nearing and the retail price has been clearly
quoted. The quoted price of 16 million dong is really high for Vietnamese
buyers. The high price has been explained as fitting the “high class” of the
product. However, it seems that Vietnamese people remain indifferent to the new
product.

A lot of articles on telecom and
IT magazines have pointed out that if comparing iPad and Galaxy Tab, the later
will not be able to defeat iPad. Despite the high prices, weak battery,
unsuitable screen and poor applications are the biggest problems of Galaxy Tab.
On TinhTe forum, after discussing the characteristics of Galaxy Tab ,many
members wrote that previously they thought Galaxy Tab was a “big star” but they
are disappointed.
In the latest news, Archos is planning to launch 10 inch
table PC into Vietnam’s market with the expected price at below 10 million
dong. The product does not have phone and digital camera, but it is really an
attractive product because it can satisfy all the basic demands of a tablet.

The year 2010 is nearly coming to
an end, and it is the right time to do an analysis on the turnover of products.
The reports show that eBook Kindle, Windows 7, iPad/iPhone and Android phone
are among the best sellers in the sale season. However, in the same reports,
Android Tablet has not been successful. Statistics show that 80 percent of
polled people say if they buy tablets, they will choose an iPad for the
year-end season, while only three percent of people will choose Galaxy Tab.
Meanwhile, 95 percent of the turnover of the tablet market is falling into the
hands of Apple.

More and more Vietnamese
become addicted to mobile phones, as the service providers continue to lower
the fees and the prices of luxury phones are also dropping.

According to the Ministry
of Industry and Trade, it is estimated that Vietnam will import one billion
dollar worth of mobile phones in 2010. The ministry believes that the mobile
phone imports account for a big proportion of the total import value and this
is one of the main reasons behind the high trade deficit. Therefore, it has
been trying to restrict the imports, especially of luxury/expensive products.

Recently, people in Hanoi,
HCM City and Da Nang had to queue up in front of mobile phone distribution
shops to purchase iPhone 4. A lot of people said they had to queue up from 5 am
to be able to buy one.

Statistics showed that
more than 10 million mobile phones were sold in 2009 in Vietnam. This means
that one out of every eight Vietnamese people purchased a new phone.
Experts have forecast that 12 million mobile phones would be sold in 2010,
which means that one out of every seven people would purchase a new phone. Five
years ago, no one could imagine that the number of mobile phone users would be
so high.

Analysts say that
Vietnamese people do not change their phones as frequently as people in Hong
Kong, Taiwan or South Korea. However, the number of Vietnamese people using two
or more mobile phones at the same time, and people who buy new phones every six
months or one year has been increasing significantly.

The lower the service fee,
the bigger the number of mobile phone users

In the past, high fees
were a big obstacle for mobile phone users. However, nowadays, with the stiff
competition between the service providers, the fee has been decreasing
significantly.

Frost & Sullivan, the firm
specializing in surveying telecom market, recently said that Vietnamese telecom
companies are providing services at 4 cent per minute (800 dong), because there
are too many ongoing promotion campaigns. Frost & Sullivan believes that
the price war between the service providers will negatively impact Vietnam’s
market, because the revenue growth will slow down, while service providers will
not get enough money for re-investment. However, it is clear that the stiff
competition of service providers will bring benefit to customers.

Mobile service providers,
private distributors and the official distributors of iPhone 4 said there are
no more iPhones available.


At Asia Telecom Centre at No 245
Xa Dan Street, the price of 16GB iPhone 4 is now quoted at 18.2 million dong,
while 32GB at 20.5 million dong. However, the salesmen here tell all buyers
that they are out of stock. “The last iPhone 4, 16GB, was sold this morning. We
are waiting for the next consignment of imports, but we don’t know when it will
arrive,” said by the salesman.

Those who want to buy iPhone in Vietnam, now
have only one choice – visiting Viettel’s shops regularly or checking its
website for updates.

Meanwhile, the prices of iPhone 4 have increased sharply
because of the dollar appreciation.

Several days ago, iShop stopped displaying
the price for its iPhone 4 products. The shop’s representative said clients
need to come to the shop for pricing information. The problem lies in the fact
that the dollar price has been increasing continuously in recent days, thus
making it difficult for sellers to fix the price. All iPhones are imported and
paid in dollars. Therefore, in order to secure profit they have to set up
prices based on dollar. As the result, iPhone price in Vietnam dong is
increasing and fluctuating everyday.
However, VinaPhone and Viettel, the two
big mobile phone service providers, have affirmed that the dollar price
increases will not affect their pricing policies.

“VNPT Hanoi, is losing 60,000
fixed line subscribers every year”, said by Tran Manh Hung, Director of VNPT
Hanoi at a working session with Minister of Information and Telecommunications
Le Doan Hop recently.



Analysts said that the strong
growth of mobile phone networks has caused much trouble to the fixed line
service providers. In 2008, the revenue of VNPT Hanoi from fixed line services
was 1506 billion dong, a decrease of 10.3 percent compared to the previous
year. The decrease rate rose to 10.6 percent in 2009, when the revenue was 1346
billion dong.

VNPT anticipates that the revenue from fixed line services in
2010 would be 1170 billion dong only, a fall of 13 percent compared to
2009.

Other cities and provinces have also reported the setback of fixed line
services, saying that fixed line service providers have been losing subscribers
in favour of mobile phone service providers.



Meanwhile, mobile service
networks have seen the number of subscribers increasing by tens of million
every year. 20 million new subscribers appeared in 2010, a very high figure,
even though 2010 witnessesed the lowest growth rate in number of mobile phone
subscribers in the last five years.

Hung from VNPT Hanoi said that the number
of fixed line service users has been decreasing gradually because the mobile
phone service fee has been decreasing in recent years, encouraging more people
to use mobile phones.
The mobile service providers have also launched different
products targeting different groups of clients. The sharpest fee reductions
have been applied to students.

The users of Q-Teen package can now enjoy the
fee reduction of 15 percent, while users of Q-Student package 14.25
percent.

According to analysts, mobile phone service fee is now higher by only
10 percent than fixed line service fee, while mobile phones have many
advantages in comparison with fixed line. Especially the flexibility they
offer, of being able to connect to other subscribers at any time and
everywhere. They can enjoy the rate reductions on holidays and weekends, use
various kinds of value added services and access Internet at any time.

The
continuous decrease in the mobile phone services fees, the fixed line may soon
become the more expensive option.

Using mobile phones has become a dominant
trend, making mobile phones a serious rival to fixed line.

“VNPT Hanoi, is losing 60,000
fixed line subscribers every year”, said by Tran Manh Hung, Director of VNPT
Hanoi at a working session with Minister of Information and Telecommunications
Le Doan Hop recently.



Analysts said that the strong
growth of mobile phone networks has caused much trouble to the fixed line
service providers. In 2008, the revenue of VNPT Hanoi from fixed line services
was 1506 billion dong, a decrease of 10.3 percent compared to the previous
year. The decrease rate rose to 10.6 percent in 2009, when the revenue was 1346
billion dong.

VNPT anticipates that the revenue from fixed line services in
2010 would be 1170 billion dong only, a fall of 13 percent compared to
2009.

Other cities and provinces have also reported the setback of fixed line
services, saying that fixed line service providers have been losing subscribers
in favour of mobile phone service providers.



Meanwhile, mobile service
networks have seen the number of subscribers increasing by tens of million
every year. 20 million new subscribers appeared in 2010, a very high figure,
even though 2010 witnessesed the lowest growth rate in number of mobile phone
subscribers in the last five years.

Hung from VNPT Hanoi said that the number
of fixed line service users has been decreasing gradually because the mobile
phone service fee has been decreasing in recent years, encouraging more people
to use mobile phones.
The mobile service providers have also launched different
products targeting different groups of clients. The sharpest fee reductions
have been applied to students.

The users of Q-Teen package can now enjoy the
fee reduction of 15 percent, while users of Q-Student package 14.25
percent.

According to analysts, mobile phone service fee is now higher by only
10 percent than fixed line service fee, while mobile phones have many
advantages in comparison with fixed line. Especially the flexibility they
offer, of being able to connect to other subscribers at any time and
everywhere. They can enjoy the rate reductions on holidays and weekends, use
various kinds of value added services and access Internet at any time.

The
continuous decrease in the mobile phone services fees, the fixed line may soon
become the more expensive option.

Using mobile phones has become a dominant
trend, making mobile phones a serious rival to fixed line.

Thousands of people want
to buy iPhone 4, VinaPhone may have to hold a draw to select lucky customers.


VinaPhone
and Viettel’s second round of Apple iPhone 4 imports sold out quickly around
the country, barely scratching the surface of demand for the trendy cell phone.

“VinaPhone will hold a
draw to ensure impartiality for customers”, a company official said, adding
that customers will register for the draw in the morning and the draw will be
organized on the afternoon of the same day.

“We will make public the
points of sale and draw to prevent our employees from illegally selling the
phones,” he said.

The firm recently banned
its staffs from collaborating with phone shops to sell iPhone 4 to earn extra
profit. Violators will be fined or even fired.

Meanwhile, Viettel’s new
batch of iPhone 4 arrived in Vietnam today, October 15. Viettel will randomly
select customers from October 20-24 via its website and organize draw like
VinaPhone at all Viettel shops in Vietnam. However, this firm will sell several
iPhone 4 a day.

On online forums, customers
complained that they had to wait for a long time to own an iPhone 4. Many
people couldn’t wait so they turned to buy iPhone 3Gs, resulted in the increase
of prices for this model.

Thousands of people want
to buy iPhone 4, VinaPhone may have to hold a draw to select lucky customers.


VinaPhone
and Viettel’s second round of Apple iPhone 4 imports sold out quickly around
the country, barely scratching the surface of demand for the trendy cell phone.

“VinaPhone will hold a
draw to ensure impartiality for customers”, a company official said, adding
that customers will register for the draw in the morning and the draw will be
organized on the afternoon of the same day.

“We will make public the
points of sale and draw to prevent our employees from illegally selling the
phones,” he said.

The firm recently banned
its staffs from collaborating with phone shops to sell iPhone 4 to earn extra
profit. Violators will be fined or even fired.

Meanwhile, Viettel’s new
batch of iPhone 4 arrived in Vietnam today, October 15. Viettel will randomly
select customers from October 20-24 via its website and organize draw like
VinaPhone at all Viettel shops in Vietnam. However, this firm will sell several
iPhone 4 a day.

On online forums, customers
complained that they had to wait for a long time to own an iPhone 4. Many
people couldn’t wait so they turned to buy iPhone 3Gs, resulted in the increase
of prices for this model.

VinaPhone and Viettel will
purchase an additional 2,000 iPhone 4 products in October to meet the high
demand for this luxurious cell phone.

The two official
distributors of iPhone in Vietnam, VinaPhone and Viettel, sold out a total of
1,000 Apple’s latest iPhone within a few hours on the morning of September 30,
when it was officially distributed in Vietnam. 

Long lines of people
waiting to buy the phone gathered in front of Vinaphone and Viettel stores in
Hanoi and HCM City at around 7am. Many customers were upset and went home
empty-handed due to insufficient stock. 

The iPhone 4 launched in
the US in June. Although the smartphone has been available at phone shops
around the country for months, it was only distributed officially in Vietnam
via Vinaphone and Viettel for the first time this week.

Official prices are set at
VND13.4 million for the 16 gigabyte version and VND15.6 million for the 32 GB
model. Prices at these official outlets are VND2-3 million lower than prices at
small-scale phone shops.

VinaPhone and Viettel will
purchase an additional 2,000 iPhone 4 products in October to meet the high
demand for this luxurious cell phone.

The two official
distributors of iPhone in Vietnam, VinaPhone and Viettel, sold out a total of
1,000 Apple’s latest iPhone within a few hours on the morning of September 30,
when it was officially distributed in Vietnam. 

Long lines of people
waiting to buy the phone gathered in front of Vinaphone and Viettel stores in
Hanoi and HCM City at around 7am. Many customers were upset and went home
empty-handed due to insufficient stock. 

The iPhone 4 launched in
the US in June. Although the smartphone has been available at phone shops
around the country for months, it was only distributed officially in Vietnam
via Vinaphone and Viettel for the first time this week.

Official prices are set at
VND13.4 million for the 16 gigabyte version and VND15.6 million for the 32 GB
model. Prices at these official outlets are VND2-3 million lower than prices at
small-scale phone shops.