It was
multifunctional cheap products which created the bustle in the mobile phone
market in 2010.

The overall panorama

At the
beginning of 2010, analysts and experts predicted that the mobile phone market
would see a 40 percent growth rate in 2010. However, the actual growth rate was
much lower than expected, at 30 percent. Though the figure is higher than the
growth rate of 25 percent in 2009, it was must lower than the growth rates of
70-100 percent some years ago, when the mobile market boomed.

The
statistics from a market survey firm show that 1.03 million mobile phones were
sold all over the country in November 2010, an increase of 28 percent in
comparison with 804,825 products in November 2009. Meanwhile, 11.3 million
products had been sold by November 2010. Since the average price of mobile
phone increased in 2010, the total turnover of the year increased considerably
by 40 percent in comparison with 2009.

In HCM City,
the biggest mobile device market in Vietnam, 268,190 products sold in
November 2010, up by 18 percent in comparison with November 2009.

However,
the city remains the biggest market in Vietnam which consumes 26-29
percent of products sold. Meanwhile, Hanoi
is the second biggest market which accounts for 16-18 percent of products sold.

Regarding
the role of the retail network, two years ago, retail chains accounted for 36
percent of the market share in quantity, while the figure had dropped to 30
percent by November 2010. If considering turnover, the market share held by
retail chains has dropped from 35 percent in November 2009 to 31 percent in
November 2010. As such, in the last year, the market share held by retail
chains has not increased even though retain chains opened many new retail
points or launched many promotion campaigns to attract customers.

Multifunctional cheap products the
first choice

In 2010,
the products priced between 500,000 dong and one million dong were still the
big choice of customers (25-30 percent of sold products were multifunctional
low cost mobile phones). Meanwhile, 45 percent of sold products were priced
less than one million dong. If counting the market segment of products priced
less than two million dong, the market share would be approximately 70 percent.

The volume
of sold products priced at six million dong and more increased by 4-6 percent
and had a value increase of 22-27 percent. Meanwhile, the figures were one
percent and four percent for the products priced at 10 million dong or more.

The sales
of mobile phone products with MP3 music functions have increased continuously
in the last two consecutive years, especially in 2010. These products only
accounted for 50 percent of the total sold products in November 2008, and the figure
soared to 62 percent in November 2009 and then to 79 percent in November 2010.
The popularity of mobile phones with MP3 music functions is close to the
popularity of mobile phones with colorful screens (85 percent of market share
by November 2010).

The series
of products with Bluetooth connection have also seen sales increasing from 55
percent to 60 percent in the number of sold products. The mobile phones with
cameras have also become more favorite which account for 67 percent of sold
products. Meanwhile, the mobile phones with two cameras accounted for nine
percent.

Though no
official figure has been released, mobile phone dealers have affirmed that
mobile phones with wi-fi capabilities have received special attention from the
public with an increasingly high market share. It is because mobile phone
models have become cheaper, thus becoming affordable to customers. Even the
brand names which have just appeared recently in the domestic market such as
Wellcom, F-mobile, K-Touch, have also launched products with wi-fi
capabilities. However, the most outstanding event in 2010 was the appearance of
Nokia C3 with wi-fi, priced at less than 2.8 million dong. In order to compete
with Nokia, other manufacturers like Samsung or LG also launched a series with
wi-fi and sold them for less than three million dong.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon