Apple opens Vietnam company

The investment certificate granted to Apple Vietnam LLC that it can sell wholesale, has right to goods import/export and distribution, and can provide information technology services and services related to Apple.

An analyst noted that in the immediate time Apple may focus on distributing Apple products and providing post-sale services in Vietnam. 

When Vietnamese users report problems about Apple’s products, the products are sent to Singapore for treatment, a process which takes time. In the future, with the presence of Apple in Vietnam, Vietnamese users will enjoy better post-sale services.

However, the analyst said, Vietnam has even higher hopes, as the country is a potential market with high number of users. It could also be a good production base with good labor force and good policies on production support.

Therefore, it is possible that Apple may consider setting up factories to make simple support devices, such as headphones and travel adapters in Vietnam.

Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Justin Lee, a well-known blogger about Asia’s technology, as saying that Apple plans to set up an Apple Store in Singapore in 2016, which indicates Apple’s serious consideration of the Southeast Asian market.

Japan, China and Hong Kong are the only markets in Asia with Apple Stores. 

The representative of another retail chain also thinks that Apple stores in Vietnam would not affect existing sales agents and distributors.

He thinks Apple would set up no more than two Apple stores in Vietnam, one in Hanoi and one in HCM City. If the stores sell products, their selling prices would be nearly the same with prices applied by sales agents to avoid possible price conflicts.

Tri Thuc Tre noted that retail is not among the fields written in Apple Vietnam’s investment certificate. Whether Apple would set up an Apple Store and when it would do this should not be a question raised for now.

However, analysts believe nothing is impossible in such a fast-growing market like Vietnam.

However, it would be a great challenge to dealers distributing Apple’s products now brought to Vietnam across border gates, because Apple would apply policies to support its authorized distributors. 

 

Thanh Mai