Though the
market was bustling in 2010 with many new products appearing, which caught some
attention from consumers, there was nothing especially excellent in the year.

GfK, a
market survey firm, has officially released the results of the survey on
leading hi-tech brands in Vietnamese market. The survey shows minor changes in
the ranks and positions of the largest manufacturer’s market shares in Vietnam.

Nokia
continued leading the mobile phone market. This is not a surprise at all because
Nokia has been firm on the first position for the many years.

Though GfK
did not reveal the detailed figures about the sales of mobile phones of
different brands, dealers believe that the sales of the Vietnamese brand mobile
phone products increased sharply in 2010, thus putting a hard pressure on big
brands.

Like the
mobile phone market, other hi-tech product markets also saw no big change in
the ranks and positions of the giants. Sanyo continued leading in microwave
products, Samsung in the computer screens, Panasonic in air conditioners, and
Compaq in desktops.

The most
outstanding “usurpation” on the hi-tech product market occurred with Acer, when
the brand officially surpassed HP to become the leader in the laptop market.
Acer’s leading position proves to be very firm when the brand had three
products listed among top 10 best sellers on Vietnamese market in 2010.

Meanwhile,
HP not only lost the leading position, but also had no product listed among the
10 best sellers of the year.

Dell also
has made a significant impression on the laptop market in 2010 when it gained
the seven, eighth and ninth positions in the list of top 10 best sellers.

Compaq, the
“brother brand name” of HP, though leading the desktop market, only had one
product listed in the top 10 best sellers on the desktop market.

Due to some
changes in the surveying criteria, there were some changes in some sectors.

In 2009,
the leading position in the digital camera market belonged to Canon. However,
in 2010, the digital camera alone was divided into two groups, including
unprofessional digital cameras used for travelers, and the digital cameras with
separate lens. Sony led the former, while Canon led the latter market segments.

However, if
considering digital cameras in general, Sony had a good impression on the
market, when it had four products listed among the top 10 best sellers, while
Canon only had three. Sony’s products are holding the first, second, seventh and
ninth positions, while Canon’s products are on the fourth, fifth and sixth
positions.

Changes in
the way of making appraisals also occurred with printing machines. In the
2010’s survey, GfK classified printing machines into two market segments,
inkjets and laser printers. As such, Canon led the laser printer market, while
Epson led the inkjet market. Meanwhile, HP lost its leading position in the
printer market in general.

Also
according to GfK, most of the market segments did not obtain impressive growths.
The desktop market has shown signs of becoming saturated. Meanwhile, the number
of desktop computers sold decreased from 531,520 in 2009 to 438,250 in 2010.

Office
machines market segment did not see the decline in 2010, but it saw a slow
growth. The number of printers sold only increased moderately from 223,000
printers in 2009 to 227,000 in 2010. Meanwhile, multifunctional printers only
increased from 53,000 in 2009 to 54,800 in 2010.

The digital
camera market seemed to be bright with the sales volume at 38,600 by December,
2010. Much higher than the 31,900 by December of 2009.

The
impressive growth was only seen in the laptop, LCD and plasma TV screens. The
number of laptops increased rapidly from 31,180 in December, 2009 to 51,960 in
December, 2010. The number of LCD and plasma screens also increased by nearly
50 percent, from 104,000 to 149,000.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon