Vietnam to Record Bigger Mobile Phone Sales This Year

Vietnam to record bigger mobile phone sales this year

HANOI, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) — Vietnam consumed 1.6 million mobile phones in the first half of this year, equivalent to the total sales last year, local newspaper Youth quoted data of a market research company as reporting.

In the period, 94 percent of local consumers chose products with color screens, and 70 percent camera phones, according to the market research firm GfK Asia in the country.

Vietnam is expected to consume 2.7 million-3 million mobile phones in 2005, many of them have eye-catching styles and advanced functions, the company said, predicting that local demand for high- end phones which offer Bluetooth wireless connection and enable installation of many application software will rise in the coming months.

However, a considerably large number of local consumers still prefer low-cost mobile phones, at prices of around 100 US dollars.

Nokia and Samsung, which currently hold a combined local market share of more than 70 percent, will maintain their strong foothold in Vietnam this year, GfK Asia said, noting that other firms such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and LG are vying for the remainder.

The number of mobile phone users in the country with the population of over 82 million now stands at nearly 6 million, and is expected to increase to 7.3 million by the end of this year and 21.2 million in late 2008, the country’s largest telecommunications firm, the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, told Xinhua recently.

The increasing mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam are partly attributed to falling prices of products and services, rising affluence of local residents, and more value-added services such as games and music.

Vietnam has become one of Asia’s fastest-growing mobile phone markets, with the industry’s average annual growth rate of 47.8 percent in the 2001-2004 period, the corporation said.