Taking advantage of the worldwide fever for iPads, Vietnamese companies, from banks to mobile operators and electronics stores are using them as bonus gifts to attract customers.

In late June, MobiFone launched its “Forecasting World Cup” program for subscribers, with two Apple iPad 16 GB and 32GB as the grand prize.

Though an iPad is worth only 15 million dong, much less than cars, scooters or overseas tours that they gave away in other contests, this program attracted many customers.

HSBC also presented iPads to the first 50 clients to borrow money to buy a house, plus a zero percent interest rate for the first month. According to the bank, iPads were chosen by clients who are office employees and hi-tech fans.

“We see that iPads are a favourite product with many people, so we chose it as our bonus,” an HSBC representative explained.

This stylish, hi-tech product was also selected by Topcare supermarket chain and Viet Phu company as promotional bonuses.

NEM Fashion also launched a campaign with iPad and, one month after its launch, consumer numbers rose by nearly 30 percent.

iPad is a tablet computer designed and developed by Apple. It is particularly marketed for consumption of media such as books and periodicals, movies, music, and games, as well as for general web and e-mail access. At about 700 grams, its size and weight runs between most contemporary smart phones and laptops. Apple sold 3 million iPads in the first 80 days of its April 2010 release.

PV