Aggressive shipments of low-cost smartphones negatively impacted feature phone shipments in Vietnam, IDC’s Asia-Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows.
The research firm reported that 6.6 million mobile phones were shipped to the country in the first quarter of 2014, down by 4.9 percent quarter on quarter and 0.7 percent year on year.
Smartphones, however, accounted for 38.6 percent of total mobile phone shipments in the first quarter, a noticeable increase from 21.8 percent in the same period last year.
“Low-end and mid-range handsets proved to be a key factor to sparking demand for smartphones,” said Võ Lê Tâm Thanh, Senior Market Analyst, Mobile Devices at IDC Vietnam. "Specifically for smartphones, those with price points lower than USD150 dominated the shipments in Vietnam while phones in higher priced segments were merely treading water during the first quarter of 2014."
Although premium smartphones struggled to take off, Apple enjoyed consecutive quarters of strong growth, largely due to its partnership with FPT, which expanded Apple’s retail presence in Vietnam.
Daniel Pang, Senior Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC ASEAN comments, said Apple has proven to be very popular in Vietnam as Vietnamese consumers attach a high sense of prestige towards owning an iPhone.
“Vietnam stands out as the only country in Asia/Pacific where Nokia shipments are almost on par with Samsung’s," said Pang. “Vendors who are looking to get on board the WP ecosystem should definitely take a close look at this market.”