Many Vietnamese people are ready to spend tens of
millions dong just to buy a smartphone. However, most of them just use the
smartphone for simple purposes, such as making calls, playing games or listening
to music.

The fact that smart phones have been selling like hot potatoes in Vietnam, a
poor country with the average income per capita at $1000 per annum has surprised
many foreign businessmen. In Vietnam, individuals with the monthly income of 10
million dong would be considered high income earners. However, they would be
ready to spend tens of millions dong, or their income of several months, just to
buy a smartphone.

However, the strange thing here is that these people buy smartphones not to use
the “Smart” functions of the phones, but just to become “connoisseurs”.

A lot of smart phone users have admitted that they only use smart phones for
simple purposes, like making calls, playing games or listening to music. Nguyen
Thi Lan, who lives in Thu Duc district in HCM City, said she was so happy after
she successfully purchased an iPhone 4. Lan was not lucky enough to purchase the
iPhone from the official distributor. She had to buy the phone from another
person, who bought the phone from the distributor at quoted price and then
resold to Lan at a price that was several millions of dong higher than the
original price. However, Lan has been using the smartphone to make and receive
calls. “Why don’t you buy another phone, which has the functions you want and it
is much cheaper?” Lan was questioned. “No other phone can compete with iPhone 4.
This is the hottest model now in the market. I have to use iPhone 4, because
only iPhone 4 can show my class in society,” Lan said.

Meanwhile, Le Van Dung in District 3 in HCM City, has spent more than 10 million
dong to buy a brand new 9800 BlackBerry. Dung said that he purchased the phone
because BlackBerry is considered a symbol for businessmen because it looks very
luxurious. However, Dung has been using the phone just to make and receive
calls, saying that the thing that makes him most satisfactory about the phone is
that he can create messages and send messages very quickly with the phone. When
asked which operating system his phone is using, and if there is Wifi to make
Internet connection, or if it is possible to surf on websites with the phone,
Dung just smiled and said he does not know anything more about the phone, except
the most basic functions.

Dung and Lan are not alone in Vietnam. Nguyen Duc Hoai, a technique officer of
tinhte.vn, an information technology forum, who specializes in repairing smart
phones for the clients of Tinh Te Café, said that many people know nothing about
their valuable smartphones. “Many of them bring phones to me to ask to fix the
errors with the software. Meanwhile, they can fix the errors themselves using
very simple operations,” Hoai said.

In fact, Vietnamese smartphone users can learn about the “smart” functions of
their phones from different sources, including on Internet. For example,
information about how to unlock iPhone 4 for use in Vietnam has been updated on
many forums. However, many people have not read the information and have to
bring their phones to service providers and pay 500-700,000 dong for the simple
service of unlocking the them.

That explains why many smart phone users have been described as “purse-proud”,
because they use smartphones just to show off and to be connoisseurs.

Le My